Double
by TheUnwieldyStatesman
Summary: Danny isn't the only one living a double life. It's taken a toll on him but others have their baggage too. A certain quarterback is hiding a secret from his friends and family. Two unexpected lovebirds will have to deal with the serious consequences of teenage irresponsibility.
1. One

"I'm in a bad fucking mood today, Fenton," Dash had him pinned on the locker right before homeroom. Their faces were only a couple of inches apart. Danny's feet were off the ground and he felt the power that the other boy had over him.

"Well," Danny was trying to squirm his way out, "I'm sorry, but do you have to take it out on me?" He had the strength to push him off a thousand times over, but he could not risk blowing his identity. He had to keep up the pretense and struggle. He hated the squirming, but he hated the fact that he had a boner growing and throbbing in the tighty-whities that his mother insisted he wore. More on her neuroses later, back to the erection Danny was sporting. He was hoping with silent, robust pleas that Dash wouldn't notice.

"Well, who else Fen-toad? You're the only one who still tries to fight his way out." He spat the words at the smaller boy.

Danny wriggled a little.

"See, that, right there. You squirming under me makes it worth it."

Danny exhaled deeply, feeling conflicted, deeply conflicted about the words he's hearing. His logical half realized that there was a deep-seated problem in Dash. He, Dash Baxter, felt the need, and was quite driven to hunt down people who are weaker than him. Probably to cover up for some inadequacy.

The animal in Danny, that is to say, his baser instincts, loved the pursuit. Something in him wanted to be hunted and subdued. The boner in his pants at that moment proved unequivocally that he wanted to squirm under Dash.

It was terrible fucking catch-22. Danny was developing a craving for being close to Dash and enjoying that closeness, **but** in the achievement of that intimacy Danny's attraction could be exposed, forever cutting off his ability to get close in the first place.

Danny was wondering when he began getting so metaphysical when he was being manhandled. And where the fuck were Sam and Tucker? They were probably off making out or fucking someplace. The school was big and there were plenty places to hide. Danny had found that out with this whole fighting ghosts thing.

And a few words on that: He hated it.

And a few more: It was an awful life.

And what the hell a few paragraphs:

It truly had, over the many, many months, gotten so damn monotonous. Go to school, try to keep your head up in Mr. Lancer's boring math class, go home, but get stopped on the way by some threat to the city by some punk ghost, defeat the enemy/enemies. Then go home and finish the given homework burning the midnight oil while his mom and dad were sleeping, unaware that he was a host or that there were so many around. Then wake up exhausted, repeat. That was Danny's pattern Monday through Thursday. Unfortunately, the weekend offered no reprieve. The crimes started early on Friday evenings, afternoons, sometimes. 'Villains', as the papers called them, started to terrorize citizens from the earliest twilight to the latest dusk. Danny remembered, too vividly, being knocked out of the sky on to the dew sprinkled grass, as the sky started to lighten into sherbet shades (or as Madame Devereux would suggest, sorbet). He also recalled battling with an adversary during the day and ending with only the moon and the few stars one could view in the metropolis as very quiet company.

During the school year there _was_ stress indescribable. Balancing school and justice was easily the worst thing he could imagine. Sometimes, if he was lucky, he would get one, or two, or (Hallelujah!) three hours of sleep on any given night. That was a good night. On a bad night, he'd have to come in after vanquishing whoever, transform back to Danny Fenton, Casper High student, and head out the door to school with Jazz and the risen sun as company. It's a wonder of the universe how he managed to pass any of his classes. At least the transformation back was like taking a long hot shower, brushing his teeth and getting dressed into cleaned and ironed clothes. There was no smell from the armpits or feet, no wrinkles on the jeans or shirt or the hoodie he stowed in his locker.

That may have been handy, but it did not make him feel rested. He would, just, fucking ache. His head would ache from the banging he got. His throat would be hoarse from not given his voice a rest. At least he did not have to run. His ability to fly made it easier, but his arms always hurt. The fisticuffs with everyone made his arms sore. The transformation did not erase the bruises.

Bruises… how he had to lie about all the fucking bruises. He had to become a good liar, and quickly. He didn't enjoy lying to his parents (who would?), but it was never an option to tell either of them the truth (Danny remembered what happened when his mom found out and he had to erase her memory). It wasn't thrilling for him to lie, but lie he had to. In the wintertime it was easy. Long sleeves cleverly concealed contusions. The feeling of fabric rubbing against one of the dark marks was, however a lot for him to deal with. It felt like thousands of tiny, hot needles were being pricked into him every time the fabric would move. An armband or a bit of gauze solved that, but it was hard to explain. He started wearing complete jogging suits as to not arouse suspicion from that hardass PE teacher. The only way to truly avoid any wariness was to avoid being hit so hard that vessels broke. He couldn't wear any padding, as it was impossible (you can trust that he tried). He couldn't flee, the city needed him. He just had to learn, the hard way, to be more agile. It sucked.

He snapped back to reality. The bell ringing always had that ability, especially on the first day of the year. Dash let him go, Danny fell straight down and stumbled forward a little. Dash laughed, a cruel laugh. "See you later, dweeb." as he walked off.

Danny got down and grabbed his backpack which had fallen in the scuffle and hurried off to his new homeroom, 214.

'Can't start the race late', as that principal would always say. So he went to his homeroom having a silent dread for not knowing who the teacher would be. Yes, the teachers rotated homeroom every year. Some unlucky bastards got Lancer all four years. Danny was just hoping that he skated him this year, like he did last year.

HE already knew that Sam and tucker were down the hall in 222 so he would be alone. He opened the door to his new homeroom and was greeted by no other than Mr. Lancer himself. "Good morning, Daniel, you're almost late, so find your seat before you get detention."

Danny didn't dignify that with a response, only looked for his name. There was something off about how everybody was seated. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it wasn't right. He was very pissed off to find that he would be sitting directly in front of Baxter the bully.

"There is no God," he muttered under his breath as he sat at the hard seat that was attached to the desk. Dash was staring laser beams through his scalp. The bell rang again and Lancer started talking.

"Some of you know me and some of you do not. For the benefit of those who don't my name is Mister Lancer," He wrote his name on the blackboard (yes in this school they were actually black, not that punk green shit, and smart boards, don't even go there). "I'm not Mister Lance, or Mister L, or 'Teach' or 'Yo Son'. I am a teacher and I will be respected as such. If you remember that we'll get on _marvelously._ You may be wondering about the seating arrangements and it is strange to me too. Our superintendent, Mrs. Briars is launching a new initiative to 'foster a greater sense of community between teaching staff and students, and among the student body'. Therefore, you are being seated alphabetically by _first name_. I know that it will be quite an adjustment, but we are being compelled to do this. So, you will be good students and do like you're told."

"You don't have to talk to us like toddlers," Danny thought.

"Now," Lancer was still lecturing, "Your homeroom is also your first period class. That has not changed. My method has not changed either. Homework is worth twenty-five percent of your grade…"

Danny tuned him out, he knew the whole spiel. He came back to his senses when Lancer put what looked like a Bible on his desk. Public School, so it wasn't of course. Danny examined it. "Please don't be Shakespeare. Please don't be Shakespeare. Please don't be Shakespeare."

He looked at the cover: _King Lear_ by William Shakespeare.

Damn.

* * *

After English, Chemistry, Geometry and World History, came lunch. It looked as if Danny wouldn't have any classes with them, if the morning was anything to go by. At least he could manage to eat some mediocre Board of Ed. food with Tucker and Sam. Well, he was eating food and they were eating each other's faces.

"Is that all you two do?" Danny asked immediately regretting it and getting ready for the perv chills.

"No, not quite, there are other activities." Tucker said, with Samantha's blush being made manifest, though still clinging on to his bony arm.

"Don't even say another word." Danny felt a strange relief, "Let's just stop here."

"What's up with you today. New grade, new classes,"

Danny cut him off, "Same assholes."

"You can't be all bent out of shape already, dude. I mean, come on, it's only September 4th and you're acting all grouchy."

"I've been sitting in front of Dash in all my classes. This first name bullshit is not appreciated."

"Well, I've been sitting directly behind Sam and that's very appreciated."

She started blushing even harder.

"Somehow, I didn't see you being into emo chicks," Danny said.

"I'm not a chick," Same ol' Sam Manson.

"Sorry, all I meant is that I never saw this as happening." He replied.

"And we weren't expecting to catch you jac-" Tucker chimed in before our closeted hero.

"Yes, I was quite surprised," now it was Danny's turn to blush, "You shouldn't have just burst in like that."

"You should've locked your door."

"It's _my_ house!' Danny stood up quite awkwardly and shouted those words. Some of the people at nearby tables (but not close enough to hear the conversation) heard the words and saw his stance, his finger pointed in the air like a teacher or Adolf Hitler. They turned back to their respective groups and started to laugh or jeer.

Danny sat down, "Besides, Mom, Dad, and Jazz were out of town so there was no need to lock my bedroom door. And you shouldn't have been picking my lock. I mean how do you open a house lock?" He was slightly flustered.

"I just want to know how you could get your legs over your head like that." Tucker remembered how Danny was flat on his back, on the bed, going to town. Let's just say that Danny didn't have to explain that he was gay to either of them. Especially with the 'movie' he was watching on his laptop. In real terms, Tucker saw his opportunity to 'pounce' and used Sam's new found ambivalence towards Danny as a gateway. At first he felt like the rebound, but soon enough, through a somewhat unhealthy combination of trickery and earnest affection had cultivated a 'meaningful' relationship. He snapped back as he realized Danny was actually giving an answer.

"I got very flexible with the ghost powers. I don't know. And do we have to discuss the details of that 'event' again? Am I ever going to live that down?"

"Not as long as I'm alive." Tucker retorted.

"Is that all. I could kill you pretty easy." Danny joked, then he got serious "That is if Sam's dad doesn't do it first. You two need to be careful."

"Thanks, Dad." Tucker said.

* * *

Last period was gym. Now most kids would like that and all the others in the class did, but Danny knew that he was going to be assigned a gym partner. Gym Partners were usually the person who was next to you in the alphabet, that first name crap was coming back to bite. You guessed it. That Tetslaff creature shouted, "Baxter, Fenton pair up!"

Danny tried, "But-"

"But nothing." She said.

"He's-" He tried again.

"Your partner."

"Yes, ma'am." She walked away.

"Nice try, Fen-dunce." That was a weaker one from Dashiell.

"You know, one day, and I think it's gonna be sooner rather than later, I'm going to get fed up with you." Danny gritted his teeth.

"And what are you gonna do? Cry?" Dash whispered back, seeming to like this too much.

"You'll see." That's all Danny could come up with.

"Try me."

* * *

There was a note and a few of hundreds left on the table when Danny got home.

 _Sorry, forgot to tell you, Ghost Convention in Duluth. Will be back on the 15th. Don't waste this money and don't burn the house down._

 _-Love, Mom, Dad, and Jazz_

 _P.S. Replace the emergency ham. It has spoiled._

Oh yeah, Jazz had gotten into the ghost stuff after she went through her 'psychoanalyst' phase. She gets these click obsessions. They come on really strong and she commits herself into the 'projects' and drops them like they're bad habits.

Well, an empty house meant that Danny could jack off in peace. He dropped his bag and went upstairs to his room. He grabbed his phone from his pocket to see if it had connected with the wifi. It had.

He checked because was one time when he was quite excited and his boner was ruined. His father had borrowed a cable for some machine. Only it wasn't just some cable. It connected the modem to the router, so Danny was forced to use that tiny smartphone screen and that wasn't going to do not today. He felt particularly pent up.

"There is no God," Danny had muttered to himself again. If there was and He was the loving sort then why would everything he had to do now have to spend every second with a dude who made his skin crawl? And why did the very dude who made his skin crawl make him so fucking horny and frustrating. Seriously, rubbing one out to your bully was pretty pathetic, but everything was pathetic if it was really thought through.

At least that was Danny's point of view as he walked into the bathroom and mulled over what his choice of lube would be today. Some people swore by conditioner, others vaseline. He usually would have used the last of the three, but he felt particularly pent up. He wanted to go rough on himself the same way he wanted Dash to go rough on him (in the bedroom, that is).

So, he decided he was going to go dry the afternoon.

* * *

Danny was finally in rhythm using his right hand. It was not on, unplugged in fact, to keep Vlad or Technus from spying on him. He was using the inexplicable power of the male ability to fantasize. In this particular vision, Dash was on his knees sucking, no, not exactly. Danny was facefucking him, and Dash wasn't able to handle it, gagging on his cock. The fantasy was not totally unfounded. Jack Fenton had passed down an impressive package, if nothing else. His cock eas long and sufficiently thick , though he wasn't setting any records for girth. He was eight inches, cut, no curve or deviation, thick head, not veiny, and he oozed precum like a leaky faucet. He was thinking about shaving, but there was no one to impress, yet. He knew that he didn't do to badly for someone of his frame and height.

"FUCK!" He shouted, "All I wanted to do was cum!"

He pulled up his pants and underwear from around his ankles and with regret, and a shrinking boner he changed into his ghost form. He didn't even do his pathetic battle cry.


	2. Two

As Captain of the football team, Dash had a key to the team's locker room all year around. The season wasn't started yet, but there was something about that locker room that made him feel tranquil and calm. Perhaps it was the fact that this was the place where he put on his armor to go onto the field, happier and safer. He only wished there was armor he could put on at home to make him feel happier and safer with himself.

Dash was never happy with himself, ever.

He didn't take joy with his friends, but more on that later. HE didn't like his parents and they didn't care for him, but more on that later. He didn't like himself, but more on that later.

That is what he did. That was what he was taught. 'Men don't cry.' and 'Push it down'. Since he was five he had taken those words to heart. Dash learned to be careful. He learned early on that to please his father he had to present a front of brutish, brusque piggery. His father called it 'masculinity'. Whatever it was, he learned it and practiced it. Now it was a bad habit. It was the only way e knew how to be. It was the only thing he could so. Every sensitive aspect of his personality had been buried a long, long time ago. That's not the whole reason why he resented his father. He'll be the one to tell you that later.

He didn't like to think about it. He didn't like to think about anything hard. That was his problem today. He hadn't thought about the high level of ghost activity in the area. He had gone into the locker room, locked himself in and started to indulge in his guilty pleasure.

As stated before, Dash felt calm and secure in this room: more at peace than he felt in his bedroom. He knew that it was wrong, he knew that the locker room was not supposed to be used for this purpose, but it was all he knew. He knew it was not a good idea , but he was so pent up today that it didn't matter to him.

Jacking off in the locker room wasn't a new thing for him. He had lost count many months ago. Again he felt more secure here in this soundproof (yes, truly soundproof) locker room than he ever did in his bedroom. His room had a lock, but his father had been known to kick down the door more than once.

Dash had mastered his technique. This mastery came from trial and error and from a deep seated paranoia. He knew from his experimentation that the best place in the locker room was behind the third 'double row' of lockers. With the shape and layout of the room, Dash's instincts were correct.

He was completely obscured from the door and he would have time to escape, hide, or at the very least readjust himself (i.e. pull up his pants) if anyone unlocked the door. It would take about twenty to thirty seconds for the average adult to walk to a place where he was visible. Hell, in that case he even had the chance to come up with an excuse for why he was in the room by the time a suspicious person had the opportunity.

He was so circumspect because he had a secret to hide. If that secret ever got out, it would ruin his entire life. Home nor school would be safe for him. He knew that he would have to get as far away from Amity Park, Minnesota as he could. Besides the middle of the country was just as boring as all those coastal people thought. The secret was something he had grappled with since the day he found out that there was word for it, a good word, a 'happy' word.

He realized it when he was about twelve. He heard how his friends would lose their heads talking about some girl or another. All he would see was some overly made-up flat-chested girl, or some overly made-up big-chested chick. There was no attachment to it. In his head, he might as well been looking at a statue or a mannequin. But when he saw a boy, a cute boy, he'd get the butterflies. His heart would start pounding out of his chest, his breath would hitch. He would blush and his pants would get too tight.

He was gay. He liked that word better than the words and phrases his parents would employ. Though to be fair he thought the word gay sounded too... uh... gay. 'Faggot', 'light in the loafers', 'fairy', but then they got worse 'shit-stabber', 'filthy cock-squeezer'. They sure could be creative with that shit they came up with.

He learned early on to suppress anger, the anger he felt in those strange and jilting conversations he had, they had at the dinner table.

"Hey, you heard about Mike Preston's kid?" His father would go. Replace with any name you like.

"No, what?" His mother's face would light up ready for the gossip.

"Heard they caught him taking it hard from some boy from Elmerton, you know that seedy place on Chelsea Street. Said he was screaming like the little bitch he is." His father would reply.

"Poor parenting. Shoulda seen it in his eyes when he was boy and beat it out of him." His mother would go. Somehow, his mother's comments were worse. He thought that women were supposed to be understanding and loving. Alas, it wasn't the case with his mother.

"Well, I don't have to worry about that do I, boy?" His father would always ask before chugging half the forty ounce bottle of that piss-colored malt liquor.

"No, Sir."

They talked like that more often than anyone would find necessary. It made his skin crawl. It made his stomach turn, More than once he had excused himself, proceeded to the upstairs bathroom and hurled everything he had eaten. When they asked why he'd just say, "Faggots made him sick to his stomach." He'd say, "Even thinking about that shit makes me sick." He had to make sure that he covered himself completely

"I know boy," His father would say patting his back as Dash looked down into the toilet, afraid and ashamed.

That is why Dash had taken to relieving his carnal urges as far away from home as he could. He wished he could get rid of those feelings. When he denied them, they got stronger and stronger and he would end up 'bingeing'.

It had been the same on that day too when Dash used his data on his cell phone to pull up one his favorite videos. Unsurprisingly, it was a blond boy and a black-haired boy in a locker room going at it. He plugged in his earbuds but only used one of them to keep his ears ready for the sound of keys jingling and the tumblers of a lock turning.

This particular afternoon, he was really into it. He had found his rhythm so to speak. He did not hear all the commotion outside the room and only had just enough time to pull his pants up when the lights in the room went dark blue and purple.

He moved out of the way, as quickly as he could, dropping his phone dislodging the headphone jack, but at that moment he wasn't concerned with that at the moment. All he do was hide behind another a row of lockers.

Two things phased through the wall. It looked sort of like a big blob followed immediately by a flash of light. When the two things materialized, or at least became visible, we saw that it was that stupid Box Ghost and Inviso-Bill. They were floating a few feet below the ceiling

"I'm really tired of you Box Ghost."

"BEWARE, I am th-"

"Shut up," the smaller ghost said before taking out his thermos and capturing the Box Ghost inside.

Danny was only a split second from changing back when Dash emerged from his hiding place.

"Inviso-Bill! You are the coolest!" Dash came running from the place he was cowering. "I'm your biggest fan and I-"

He noticed that 'Inviso-Bill' had descended back down to the ground and was looking at the thing that was making the most noise in the room now. It wasn't Dash but his phone still playing the video. There was the classic sound that Danny had known for a while now, the classic sound of rhythmic skin to skin contact. Unfortunately, the phone landed screen up and Danny got a good look at what was playing.

Dash made a mad Dash to his phone. His pants failing to conceal his shrinking boner, he tried to sprint to the phone, but stopped after a couple of steps knowing that he was caught. Phantom held the phone in his hands.

"I- I can explain, Inviso-Bill!" Dash's voice was cracking and he was feeling the same sickness he did when his father spoke to him.

"First, it's not Inviso-Bill. It's Phantom." He handed the phone to Dash, who promptly turned off the offending material.

"Well, I-" Dash blushed as he spoke, quite embarrassed.

"And second, I'll pretend I didn't see this and we can go our separate ways. Okay?"

"No." Dash said, putting his hands on his hips, then putting them down again in self-consciousness.

"What?" Danny just offered him an out and he turned it down. Interesting.

"It's just… I don't know if I can trust you Invi-, I mean Phantom. I don't know if you'll go and tell all your friends about this, uh… about me."

"I don't have any friends," Danny said, "Not anymore." It wasn't a complete lie. Tucker and Samantha were so into each other that, for the most part, Danny was ignored. The whole summer was spent with him trying to get back into regular contact with them. They didn't talk or see each other. It wasn't out of spite. Everything just got spacey especially with them, they got high on each others fumes it seemed. He was not mad at them, he'd have trouble if he caught Tucker the way they had caught him.

"I didn't know."

"How could you have? Secrecy, it's what I do." He sounded a bit annoyed. "Look, I'll fly you home."

"NO!" Dash almost shouted, "I can't be seen flying in your arms. Don't you know who I am?"

"Two seconds ago, you were awestruck, starstruck."

"I still am." Dash whined, "I just can't be seen like that because I'm the captain of the team."

"You were just-"

"I know, I can explain."

"Not now, please, not now. I'm embarrassed enough for you. I wasn't expecting to see this."

"I wasn't expecting to get caught. Look, can we talk later. I mean you're the only person who kno-"

"I-"

"Please," Dash implored. Danny never thought that he'd see Dash pleading, "I can't talk to anyone about… about… and I'm under pressure, there's like a pressure in my head. Every turn, everything I'm walking around life pretending, like everything's okay. Well I'm not okay, okay. I'm not okay. " He started sweating and hyperventilating, "I'm freaking out man."

"Dash-"

"How do you know my name?!"

"Because I know you. Like, I know of you." Danny came up with a cover story as he spoke, hoping that he would not have to use it, "Okay. Meet me at the top of Mount Amity at four o'clock tomorrow. I won't tell anyone. I don't have anyone to tell, and I swear if you bring anyone with you..." Danny walked up to him; he backed up until he hit a locker. Danny levitated ever so slightly to look him in the eye, "IF you let anyone know, you won't like what I'll have to do to you."

"I won't, I swear." Their faces were close. And Dash had to suppress the urge to make out with him.

At that moment and with that assurance Danny, or as Dash would call him, Phantom, left, flying through the ceiling.

Dash was alone again. He wanted to hurl but he didn't.

"He is good looking." Dash whispered to himself. He then instantly slapped himself. He said those three words that hurt him, but kept him from being hurt by his father.

"Straighten out, Dash."

It was a sick sort of mantra. He would find himself yelling it to himself. He would hear it in his head. He's whisper it to himself when he had a bad day. Today had started bad and ended worse. And those three words were reverberating.

* * *

"I fucking knew it." Danny shouted while he was aloft, "I fucking knew it."

Danny always thought that Dash was… off, you know, different. It was always more than just the bullying. Danny could tell that there was something more behind it. It was more that just "aggression to hide inadequacy." Dash was too intimate with him. Ironically, there was a certain gentleness in the way he grabbed him. Dash made sure not to really hurt him.

He took care not to break him. Dash pushed the limit, but never crossed over into trying to break Danny's soul. Any other bully wouldn't care in that sense.

Danny liked Dash's desperation. It struck him as very attractive that someone that big and powerful could be so vulnerable. In that fear and trepidation, Danny saw a someone who was more innocent than most would expect. It occurred to him, that Dash was so busy putting down his own emotions that he did not explore himself. Danny had flown through Dash's house before. He had seen the closet full of letterman jackets and a single teddy bear sitting in the back corner.

Danny's thought turned self-conscious. He hoped that Dash had not seen him blushing. And if he did, hopefully Dash interpreted it as his anger at the situation. He also hoped that Dash would not flake out tomorrow and not show up from fight. He hoped that Dash wouldn't snap that night and turn all the anger and rage on Danny in the morning.

In two senses, Danny was still in the closet to most of the people in his school. The 'gay' thing was bad enough, the 'half-ghost' thing, to which most people were ambivalent. The first one was binary, people hated you or loved you. The second was rougher and more abstract, and Danny had to admit to himself that if he were only a civilian he wouldn't know how to feel about a ghost flying around town.

'Doubling', as he called it, was hard stuff. It was made even harder by the fact that his friends, (if that was a fair still description), were too occupied with each other's bodies to know or care what was going on with Danny. In this particular situation, This was an asset. If they didn't ask, he wouldn't tell.

Bad phrasing.

It was none of their business anyway.

As Danny thought, he knew that Tucker and Sam were doing the integral dance that defined procreation. They didn't want the offspring, but the had sex like they did. They used the utmost amount of protection, they said. He knew that it would only take one slip-up, one mistake and their lives were down the crapper.

Much like his.


	3. Three

Thanks to everyone who has followed and favorited.

* * *

She broke the kiss off.

"It's just sex, right?" Sam asked, finding it very ironic that she, the girl, was asking the question. Especially now, with her on her back, only a few layers of clothes away from the act.

He was leaning over her, "Is that all you want it to be?" Tucker asked, having long taken off his glasses and put them on her bedside table. His green eyes were more intense that she would ever want to admit. She looked into them, searching, as if the answer would reveal itself through their clarity.

They were in her room, on her bed (black sheets and all), about to do it for probably the hundredth time since the incident last month. Neither of them were over it, but they weathered it together. Sex seemed to be the best therapy they could arrange. To them, it was like the Danny they knew had died. The new Danny that walked around in the same skin, spoke the same way, acted the same way, fought ghosts with the same determination was gay, very flamboyantly gay, at least in his particular preferences when it came to sex. It was a compromising position to say the least.

They felt he had been lying to them. Objectively speaking, he did withhold a very important (though ultimately immaterial), truth about himself. They were friends and friends were not supposed to have secrets, right?

Right, Sam and Tucker agreed.

Sam and Tucker thought that him being a ghostly hero for the town was the biggest secret they shared. They were sorely wrong. He was hiding things from them too. They were supposed to be tight and inseparable. They were supposed to hold it together when everybody else was running away from the situation. They were both pretty mad at him.

He had been lying (at the very least, by omitting facts) And friends aren't supposed to lie to each other, true?

Yes, very true. Absolutely true, they agreed.

"Yeah," Sam responded, "I just want it to be sex." She tried not to think about it, and when the thoughts popped up, they were intrusive and totalizing.  
"Good," Tucker replied, pressing his full lips into hers.

She pulled back again, "No, not today." She looked at him, serious.

"Damn it. You can't do this to me, woman," He got from on top of her and lay down next to her, looking at the ceiling, blue balls setting in.

She chuckled a little, "I'm sorry, I've just been thinking about Danny?"

"Hmmm?" He was baffled, still thinking about the throbbing in his pants, which would now go ignored and denied. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" She got beside him and also looked straight up at her black ceiling.

"Why?" He asked again, "There's def a reason."

"Well just at lunch today. We were all silent. We sat there like three strangers forced to share a table at the food court at the mall. We spoke a little bit and then silence and that never really happened before. We don't even have classes with him and it seems normal now. I mean he's our best friend and we haven't really talked, like 'talk' talked to him." She said.

"Whose fault is that?" Tuck asked, shrugging, "Seriously, whose fault is it?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. WE need to be friends again. Ghosts haven't stopped attacking this town."

"Why doesn't he call us then?" Tucker asked, starting to get heated. "If we were supposed to be his friends, why did he ever stop talking to us? Why didn't he tell us that he was- you know- that way?"

"We embarrassed him."

"He should've heard us." Tucker defended his actions as it was his idea to surprise him that day.

"We should've knocked. We should've called him first-"

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda… there's nothing we can do to change any of this. There's no going back in time, There's no unseeing what we saw." Tucker said, "And when you lie to your friends that way, you have to rethink everything. Everything he's said and done. I doubt it."

"Doubt what?" She asked in earnest consternation, "What's _it_?"

" _It_ , is like everything. Like anything he's ever done. Everything he's ever said. What were his motives. What was he thinking?"

"I mean we weren't mind readers before…" She added, trailing off, wondering when and where she became so pensive and disjointed.

"But we thought we had a clue. When you know someone, or think you do, you at least have a clue as to what makes them tick, what drives them. He lied to us about probably the most fundamental part of him," Tucker said, bitterly, "and what pisses me off is that he wouldn't tell us. It's how,I guess, he thought that he couldn't tell us,"  
"I know."

"I mean he didn't think he trust _us_?"

"I don't know," her voice was wavering, regretting bringing this up. She, shocked by her own ambivalence, remained silent as he went into hysterics. He wasn't loud, but his tone was rough and agitated.

" _Us?_ We fucking put our lives on the line. Shit getting blasted at us. Walls collapsing on us, lightning strikes, supernatural stuff. We put our necks on the line day in and day out fighting those stupid ghosts on his side of the fight and what does he d? He stabs us in the fucking back, he doesn't tell us the stuff he's doing. I don't give a shit that he's gay or bi or whatever. I care that he lied to us. And now he wants things to keep going as if nothing happened. Fuck that." He was shouting at the ceiling, almost forgetting that his friend with benefits was next to him looking up as if the black surface were the night sky on a summer evening.

"I don't know how to feel Tucker. I really, really don't. I get mad at him and then I can't stay that way. I just thought we knew him better than that. I just thought that he knew us better. If we kept one secret, we could keep another. I thought we in this together, we were a team. He was the leader; that was obvious. He was the one with the power. He was our friend, and now I'm not sure what he is."

* * *

Dash was severely uncomfortable when he unlocked the door to his house. It was a big, white house in opulent Amity Heights. It was two floors and had a big basement. It really was one of those 'American Dream' types, with plenty of green, manicured grass. You know, a sort of Dutch Colonial types with large windows, large rooms, and white siding. The home was set back from the street some distance with a pristine red brick path lined with orange, red, and yellow daisies on either side leading up to three steps to a great wooden door. Adjoining to the left of the house was a generous two-car was no front porch, and Dash's mother cultivated roses in front of the house and allowed a bit of ivy to grow up the front wall, but only as high as the window ledges on the first floor. The driveway was done plainly with the standard concrete. The back yard was also large with a pool, hot tub and a cherry stained deck. The property was bounded by a white picket fencing that came to just below his navel. The houses around him were the same in dignity and luxury. The houses in the blocks beyond grew bigger and bigger, and soon turned into what most termed mansions. He was solidly in the middle class, probably in the upper echelon of it.

"Hello?" He called out into the void, his keys jangling in his hands. "Hello?" He called out again, shutting and locking the door behind him.

No response. Then he remembered that they had business in Sheboygan, Chicago, and Cleveland, and finally Philadelphia for the next couple of weeks. He did his deals and she would shop, though none of these places really screamed high fashion or high society, but she always managed to buy some useless thing that she wore infrequently, if ever. He stopped thinking about them.

He looked down at his hands. They were still trembling and covered in sweat, they felt clammy. Even with the A/C on in his car he was sweating bullets. Nerves always made him this way. They always put him off of his game and put him off kilter. He would twitch and squirm, writhing in what amounted to silent agony. These episodes usually were short-lived and went down in his car.

Self-consciousness had a way of zapping his appetite, making his heart pound, and giving him the strangest boner. His nerves were fraying, his resolve was relenting. A couple of times over the summer he felt like running away from it all. He would've stolen a credit card and gotten the hell away from this town, gotten on the first train to New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, maybe San Francisco. He had no plan, of course. He knew he was good looking enough to model. He didn't know if he could line that up. He knew he was strong enough to work. He knew that he didn't have the brains to do anything academic.

He knew that his time in the limelight was swiftly coming to a close. He could only prolong it if he went ahead with football into college. He could; the scouts were already sinking their teeth into him. He didn't know if he could make it to the NFL and if he did, how long he could stay in the closet. It was hard enough in high school. There was a certain pressure that his status carried in a high school. He was expected to get the pretty girlfriend, et cetera. It was always rough when reality and perception didn't reconcile. It was worse when thoughts and expectations defied each other.

He always thought about flight because he didn't know how much fight he had left in him. He'd escape into fanciful contemplation.

" _Maybe, I could go to Chicago or New York be on the cover of some magazine or something. Maybe I could go out to LA and be in movies or go up to the valley and make porn. Don't the gay models like make more. Might get a sugar daddy."_ His thoughts were always wild, vacillating, incomplete.

Ambivalent.

Stupid.

That was how he felt. In his head, he couldn't square it. Gay guys weren't supposed to be this tough. He liked football, he was masculine. He didn't bitch or whine or moan. He was a man's man.

At least, he wanted to be a man's man.

The prospects of him fulfilling any of those dreams was slim, and as the years wore on they seems less and less likely. He clung onto hope, as it was probably the only thing he had left.

He hoped that he could make it through high school without blowing up or breaking down. If he broke down, he hoped to God that it was nowhere near Casper High or anyone who went there. He hoped it wasn't near his parents, or his home, or in the presence of any of his neighbors, or anyone who knew him, or even anny people in this town.

He trudged up the stairs and got out of his clothes. He didn't get completely naked, not yet, but he walked around in his boxers and t-shirt, He tossed his black backpack to the far corner of his room, where it would remain untouched until the morning.

He turned on the air conditioning, as it was still warm out in mid-September. He always paced back and forth when he was home alone, it distracted him from his thoughts. After pacing got old, he'd start doing crunches, pushups, lunges, anything to make him sweat.

Then, after putting on some track pants and sneakers, he would go downstairs to the basement and actually make use of the exercise room they made for him for his fifteenth birthday. There it would turn to chinups and a mile or two on the treadmill. Then he'd bench press. Then he'd use the weight set. Then back to the treadmill...

It was all done furiously, mindlessly, but carefully as to not injure himself. He went into a haze and many hours would pass before he would emerge back into reality hot and covered in a healthy layer of sweat. Every muscle would ache in a good way.

That's how he spent this evening too. He looked up at the clock on the wall: 9:15. He had been at it for almost four hours. He went back upstairs, stripped, and hopped into his shower in that bathroom that connected to his room. It was his bathroom and his parents had their own. He shut the glass door on the shower and imprisoned himself.

The dirty, invasive thoughts returned to him, now that his body was relaxed and his brain didn't have something to focus on. His thoughts turned to the person he had been crushing on for years now.

Danny Fenton affected him in a way that embarrassed him and distressed him deeply. Dash loved grabbing him, touching him. It was the contact, the warm, pale skin. He loved the little pout he made when they were close. There was something about that furious blush Fenton got drove Dash absolutely nuts. Fenton was so light when he lifted him, and the way he squirmed when he was up in the air was hot. Dash imagined if Fenton's breath hitching when he struggled was anyway close to how he was in bed. Was he silent with gentle murmurs or was he a squealer, or even hotter was he a dirty talker? Dash knew that he would be fine with any of the three. The dweeb was too cute not to be satisfied with his performance.

As the soap and water washed the sweat and grime down the drain Dash's thoughts grew baser and lustier. " _Did he have dimples around on those cheeks like he did on his face? What was he packing, a cucumber or a crayon? How hairy was he down there and did he shave? Was he cut? How tight was that..."_

Dash knew it was all wishful thinking, though. Danny was straight as far as he knew and he liked that goth dweeb. The way he looked at her was proof that Danny's interest was pussy.

It depressed him that he would never and could never get as close to boy as he wanted, but he knew that Monday through Friday he could come close enough. He didn't even call him Danny He could lift him up in the air and make the smaller teenager squirm, his legs kicking futilely.

Dash had done it again, he brought himself to the fullest manifestation of arousal with his dirty thoughts. The images were more intense when closed his eyes. He was holding his cock in his right hand. He tried for a what seemed like ages (probably about thirty seconds) to will the erection away. It only grew harder in his hand, pulsating as the thought and mental picture of Fenton sucking his dick in this very shower, taking it deep. Danny's nose was pressed into his pubes; Dash's balled rested on Fenton's chin. At that moment Dash's fantasy turned even more vivid as he felt Danny's throat constrict around his head, as Danny gagged a bit. Dash started skull fucking him, the sound of his balls hitting Fenton's chin filling his head.

"Fuck it." Dash sighed, looking down at how hard and red his prick had become.

He grabbed the bottle of body wash from the corner of the shower and started a lather in his hands. He hadn't gotten a chance to cum earlier and he damn sure was going to get it done now. He closed his eyes again and started to fantasize about his favorite person.

 _Danny was still on his knees getting his mouth pounded here in Dash's shower. He looked down and saw that Danny was stroking himself with his left and was quite excited to be in his position. Fenton reached down and around with his other hand a started fingering himself. From the pleasure Fenton was giving himself, he started to moan. Dash liked how the vibration felt on his cock. He stopped his thrusting and pulled out of his mouth he wasn't finished with him yet. He lifted Danny up. And now as the both stood they started making out. Danny was shorter so Dash reached down a little. Growing tired of that., Dash grabbed the other boy by the hips, lifted him, spun him, and pinned him on the wall of the shower. Now they were face to face, dripping with sweat and hot water from the shower._

 _Dash went all in and fought for dominance. Their tongues were locked in battle. Dash felt Fenton's tongue relenting. Dash started grinding his cock into Danny's. Danny moaned deeper into the kiss when Dash grabbed their cocks and jerked them together. They both found the perfect beat as they thrust their hips crotches together._

Dash's hand started getting busy as he took long, fast strokes on his throbbing uncut dick. He was using the suds as his lube. He usually took it slow, but not this time, not tonight. He was desperate. He leaned against the shower wall, his back arching in reaction to the cold wall, but he persisted in his stroking, the sound echoing throughout the bathroom. He pulled down some of the suds that had accumulated in his blond pubes and kept up his rhythm.

He moaned, it was a low sigh of ecstasy, as he felt his muscles tensing up. The end was near and he could feel the pre-cum leaking from him like a faucet. He started to feel all seven and a half inches of his cock twitch and convulse. He started grinding his hips into his hands harder and more erratically.

"Fuck," he groaned into his teeth as four streams of cum shot from him and hit the glass shower door.

* * *

Dash crept under his sheets the same way he did every night, in the nude. After his act of self love, he felt empty. He always felt empty and alone when he was done thinking about Danny. Satisfied, but alone, a fierce loneliness that he could never really explain in to anyone. Maybe he could trust the Phantom guy who had caught him. Then again, maybe not. The uncertainty was gnawing at him, and he felt more conflicted and angsty than any teenager should.

He cried himself to sleep that night, as he had been doing for many months now.


	4. Four

This one is on the fast side. That's totally on purpose, my friends.

* * *

"Where the fuck is this guy?" Dash mumbled under his breath. Dash had parked his car at the top of Mount Amity. This was where lovers usually found themselves in cars late at night for the avoidance of being caught out Everybody knew about the place and, for the most part, it was ignored. The sheriff's deputies left the place alone, knowing damn well that it was a rite of passage to fuck here. The sheriff himself met his wife up in the forested cliffs (but that's beside the point, back to the blond hunk).

Dash had parked about twenty feet from the edge of the of the cliff, and the low wooden fencing, that overlooked the town. He could see his school and the football field, Fenton's place with all that shit on his roof, the Nasty Burger, and even through the haze, he could make out his house faintly in the distance. This place was behind some trees that obscured it. Dash, using the rules of concealment that he used in the locker room, knew that he (and Phantom) would hear someone approaching and would be able to disappear.

Dash was pacing, marching to and fro in front of his car, a foreign-made used nineties sedan with terrible black cloth seats. It was gray, like slate, low to the ground and was rusted a bit around the fenders. It sucked, but it was his car, _his_ car. It was warm in the winter and air conditioned in the summer. It was another warm early September day and Dash had long doffed that jacket and placed it neatly in the back seat. It also made a good place to jerk off if he timed it right and concealed himself.

To be so big and noticeable, he had become Amity Park's foremost expert in secreting himself, so that he could make himself secrete. He knew how to hide himself and his details. Secrets and lies, it's what he did. Secrets and lies, it was his sick profession, his pose, his sustenance, his fatal addiction. He didn't know if he could stop if he tried. He didn't even know if he had the fortitude to try. When lying informed and characterized your way of living and your life, that is your very ability to _survive_ under the dictatorship of his parents, it would be more than difficult to throw off the habit. It was a bad habit, he acknowledged, but it kept him alive. If his parents found him out, he knew that his life would be in jeopardy. It would become a real life and death situation, and fight or flight would come into play. The smart part of him would flee, but the louder, brasher aspect of his personality, which, if he was honest had a bigger impact over his actions, would make him fight against all odds. He would lose, and there would literally be blood on his parents hands.

Lying to himself brought him to 'level-normal' or neutral. It simply got him up to the level of functioning. Lying to others, by exuding, no, embodying what was expected of someone in his position made him 'high'. It made him feel better than normal, it made him feel good.

Convincing others that he was a 'straight-shooter' made him feel more confident and secure. He could proceed into the world happier and safer in the knowledge that he would be free from the worst type scorn and ridicule. He could feel almost a part of the society. Everything about that dream had been destroyed by the ghost boy's inadvertent interruption of his self-loving. Dash himself had come to all of these conclusions himself as he was much smarter and more introspective than he or the people around him gave him credit for.

Introspection, like brain surgery was a delicate, delicate business. Go too deep and you could find yourself wondering why you still wanted to live with all the flaws and things that you unequivocally detest about yourself. If you don't go deep enough, you'll conflate your true self, with the self that you brain has made for you. What I mean is you'll mistake your false image, your romanticized image of yourself with the truth of you. Dash realized that he wasn't the Messiah, no where near it, but he was no closer to the devil. Every person was a mix of good and bad, but Dash's lying made him feel as if he was running swiftly towards the latter.

Still pacing, still thinking, in front of the car, Dash looked down at his watch. He chose his digital display today.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 4:02:38 PM

He knew that he shouldn't be this impatient, but he was nervous. The sweat on his brow, dripping down his nose. He slicked his hair back and cleared his throat simultaneously, as this was his nervous tell. He was nervous because had had been caught with his pants down, literally.

He had never been caught for anything. If and when he was compromised, he snaked his way out of it. He used his looks, his status, or his sheer hard power to find his way out of a fix. It was his luck that he would be caught about something that wasn't objectively wrong, but was treated as such. He was caught, utterly compromised and absolutely nothing could get him out of it.

"I swear, if this guy doesn't show up, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Phantom's stern voice sounded behind him.

Dash jumped a little, okay more than little. Phantom appeared behind him, floating in the air.

"SHIT!" Dash shouted, flinching harder than he ever did before, almost losing his balance and falling on his ass, "DON'T FUCKING DO THAT!" His voice went up a couple of octaves. It sounded like fear, frustration, and desperation. "I'M ON FUCKING EDGE, MAN!"

"Okay, okay, calm down." The ghost boy was truly upset and apologetic, "I'm sorry, I won't do that again. I just wanted to play a little prank on you."

"Not in the mood." Dash's voice get back down to normal, though it wasn't that deep. In fact, Phantom's voice was considerably deeper. Danny wondered what Dash's voice sounded like when he came. Was he silent, was he a squealer or even hotter, was he a dirty talker.

"I'm sorry." The ghost apologized for a second time, "Meeting new people is hard to do and I miscalculated that. That was a dumb move."

"Well, I guess would've done the same thing." Dash admitted, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have barked at you like that." He started pacing in front of the hood of his car again.

Danny had to hide his astonishment.

He had never heard an apology or anything so sincere (aside from anger) from Dashiel Baxter. He almost let his shock show, but stopped himself, realizing that reticence would be in his best interest. He would let Dash do the talking. Dash had been noticeably silent today.

Dash had pinned Fenton to the lockers this morning, but let him down again gently (well, very near to gently), without saying a word. He didn't look him in the eye. Just pinned him up and plonked him down again. It was robotic, stiff, not like Dash.

Not the Dash he knew and loved , I mean, liked.

"It's alright." Phantom descended to ground level and let his legs materialize. Dash's path was cut off as the ghost boy stood right in it. Phantom put his right and up and put it right on Dash's left shoulder. "Really, it is." It was an act of friendship that made Dash feel better, and melted most of the nerves.

"I'm sorry," Dash said again, walking away from his car and towards the cliff edge into where the sun lit everything, moving from under the canopy. It was a slow walk. Danny didn't know what Dash was doing, but was ready to spring into action if he had to. He stayed right behind Dash. Dash lifted his hands to his eyes; Danny realized that Dash was crying and again swallowed his surprise.

The two of them stopped in the sunshine, they overlooked the town. Phantom had known the town from high up for a long time and apparently.

Dash started talking as they both sat down on the grassy slope that gave way to the drastic 450 foot drop to the bottom of Amity Valley. He said, "You don't know how many times I've come up here and thought about just going over the edge."

"Oh?" Phantom was going to stick with his plan of letting Dash's stream of consciousness flow unblocked. To be honest, he didn't know how to react to his crush saying he was suicidal.

"I don't want to kill myself, not really. I just think a lot about getting away from here." Dash pointed to the town, "Away from that town down there. I wanna go somewhere where no one knows me or care who I am. I know I can't get away though. I could try and try and never get anywhere. One day I'll just fly away. I'm not there yet."

Dash stood up again and walked a pit closer to the edge. Ghost boy got up and met him. They stood at the wooden railing it came up to just about their hips. Dash stood behind the palisade and gripped it strongly. His grip was such that his knuckles were turning white. He was tenser than he ever wanted to be.

"I don't think I ever could. I get to this point and I see everything down there and I can't do it. I won't do it. It's too permanent. I wanna give myself a chance. There's a whole world beyond this shitty town and maybe I might be lucky enough to see it. I know I'm rambling but I feel so conflicted. I'm never happy and it's not fair."

Dash's voice turned bitter. His grip on the railing was vice-like now. "Why do I have to have to deal with all this shit. That town down there is a bunch of lies. They're all phonies."

Danny flinched, though Dash didn't see it. He had read a book about a teen raging about 'phonies' before, but he could not put his finger on what it was called. Something about baseball and grain.

Dash's tirade continued, "I'm supposed to have the perfect life, right? Everything is supposed to work out for me. I'm tall, I'm good looking, I… I- I'm the fucking quarterback on that stupid football team. I'm the top of the food chain in that High School and I'm fucking miserable. I'm never happy. I don't even know what happy feels like. I can't remember the last time I felt good, like really good about myself. And what's worse, when I look in the mirror, I see… I see…"

"What?" Phantom asked.

"I'm one of them. I'M A FUCKING PHONY, TOO. All I do is lie. I try all day long to convince myself that I'm I don't fucking get hard as a rock when I see a twink. I try all day, thoughts and all that shit gets put aside. Wait till the boner goes down. I can't even keep the lies straight in my head own fucking head. And then something happens or I see something and it reminds me that I'm not. And I know one day sooner or later I'mma slip up and get caught. And then I'm dead. My folks would literally fucking stab me."

"Oh?" Danny's plan was actually failing. He found himself at a loss for words. Dash was dominating him again. Danny knew he'd have to find a a way to assert his authority and started thinking earnestly about how to do it. Dash's severe vulnerability here was unnerving. It was hot but unnerving.

"In school, I try to avoid him, but every morning without fail, I just go for it."

"Him?" Danny was a little slow on the uptake.

"You already know I'm gay-" Dash was still looking out into the distance.

"I meant who." Danny said.

"There's this really, really, really cute boy in my school. He drives me nuts. It's the way he walks and the way he talks. He has these big blue eyes like two oceans and a pointy little nose. Every time I touch him or get near him I can't stop thinking of him. He almost glides around and he has muscles under all that baggy stuff he wears." Dash looked over at Phantom who had been standing over to his left, surveying the town for himself.

Dash continued, "He's a little shorter than you, maybe an inch. Black hair and white skin like perfection, like porcelain. Every time I pin him down… I"

The ghost boy was getting a vague feeling that he knew the person that Dash was talking about. There was definitely a kid like that in his math class, their math class. What was his name Tom? Theo? Something like that.

"It won't happen though. He's straight, into some weird goth chick."

The ghost boy was catching on and a bit of his shock could be heard in his voice, "Wait, who are you talking about?"

Dash exhaled,"His name is Danny Fenton and I like him a lot."

Danny realized that he was going to have to think out everything he said and did now. Dash liked him and that was good news. He know that he could find a way to bring them together. It would take time and double the effort he had put to anything before, but Danny was going to get him.

It was ironic, Dash, the hunter, the bully, had now become the hunted, the prey, the victim. He was now in Danny's crosshairs and he had become an expert hunter. Danny who had prided himself on selflessness and long-suffering realized in that moment that he was going to demand something for himself and pursue this. Dash wasn't going to safe in this anymore and in that moment all fear of Baxter had subsided.

They were both terribly lonely, he knew that. They had more in common than they reasonably should have and both of them had secrets to hide. For the moment, Danny was going to hide the secret of his identity from Dash and hope that a moment of opportunity would avail itself.

His plan went out the window and down this cliff.

"It's just every time I see him," Dash continued, "I go crazy I just want to… well you can guess."

"Yes."

"Are you- well I don't mean to be rude, and forgive me for asking, and please believe me when I say that I don't want to make you uncomfortable- and it doesn't really matter to me... I mean it's only since you were the one who caught me…and I ain't tryin' to hit on you or anything... but uh you didn't really really freak out the way a straight- "

"I'm dead." Danny answered.

"Well, when you were alive?" Dash amended his query.

"I don't remember what living feels like," Danny started, feeling an almost Shakespearean soliloquy coming along. "I don't remember what it's like to live and breathe like everyone else. I don't remember what life was like. I don't know what it's like to live and breathe free from the pressure of being a quote unquote hero. I'm dead and nothing in my surroundings resembles life now. Day and night I'm on call. No sleep, no peace. Most people get to rest in peace when they die. I wasn't so lucky. There is no rest, no peace for me. I didn't choose this, but this is how it is now. I am dead and nothing around me lives. I am dead and I have to watch everyone around this town drift and grow up and away. I didn't freak out because nothing shocks me anymore. There's nothing that can happen that will shock me, care me more than dying Dash. When it's all over you learn that there is nothing to be afraid of when you die. To conquer death, it's all you have to do is die. I've done it. Anyone can, everyone does."

Danny snapped out of it realizing that he was talking to Dash.

"I'm sorry," The ghost said, "Living was hard, and death, at least for me has been harder."

"What did it feel like? What does it feel like to be dead?"

"It feels like living, but worse."

"That's not much to look forward to." Dash commented.

"You look forward to death?"

"No," Dash reconsidered his statement, "I don't"

"Good. I don't want you to." Danny said.

* * *

"He likes me." Danny kept mumbling to himself in bed, naked under the sheets "He actually likes me."

He was giddy like anyone would be if their crush liked them back. He was going to leave the boner alone this evening and save it for the morning in the shower, where he could shoot off in relative cleanliness. Danny was trying to work out his strategy. Was the operation going to be a shock and awe strike or a propaganda drop. That remained to be seen. What would Wednesday, September 6th hold? If only Dash knew.

He fell asleep wistful, yearning and vaguely horny. He fell asleep with a smile, a devious, lusty smile.

* * *

Please leave a review. Be kind. :)


	5. Five

"I just should've said a few more things yesterday," Dash and the apparition were on the top of the mountain again, no eye contact, no touching. "I was just was too… I just should've said more yesterday."

"Like what?" Phantom asked him as they stood side by side at the railing taking the lay of the land. They had established a rule, well it was understood that eye contact wasn't necessary, and was, in fact, discouraged. They could look out to the east and remain cool, like bros. It made both of them more comfortable and more likely to share what was going on, awkward, graceless, and dreading as two teenage boys could be.

"I still felt conflicted all day today. I was feeling kinda awkward yesterday. You scared me with that little prank. I was off the whole day, worried about meeting you. I was thinking about him all day. You threw me off my game. I ain't mad about it, it's just that I can't think straight when I'm thrown off my game. I just wanted to spit out everything on my chest. Like everything was disjointed and not finished. It's my fault."

"No, it's not." A pang of guilt ran through the ghost's being.

"Yes, it is. I'm supposed to tough, you know. I'm supposed to have my shit together, like all the time. I can't cry, I can't scream, I can't even flinch in that school or at home. I gotta have this fake shitty, douchey personality like all the time. Things I think and want to do go unsaid and undone." Dash scratched his head a little, "So much shit..."

"So… what was left unsaid?"

"A lot, like… in fact most of it and I'm running out of time."

"What didn't you say?" The ghost was confused, "And how?"

"The season starts up soon. Coach is gonna start drilling us soon. I mean he kinda is already, but since I'm the Captain he doesn't worry about me. I'm going to be busy from morning till night, so I need to get rid of all this baggage. It might even help my game."

"Talking to me is getting rid of all your pressure?"

"Yes." Dash answered quickly, squinting as he looked at the shiny chrome frame of the Nasty Burger in the distance.

"And the less pressure you have when you play, the better?"

"Yes." Dash answered quickly again, before thinking more about an answer, "Well pressure is okay, but all this shit is distracting. I can't be distracted on that field, you know. If I'm worried, you know, thinking about my mother and father ever finding out or anyone who hates me getting wind of this and outing me, I'm fucking done, I'm toast man."

"How very lucky for you," Danny could barely hide the bitterness and jealousy in his voice. He used to have friends that he could talk to, but he didn't even see them in school today. More on that later.

"Are you mad at m-"

"No," Danny screamed a little, but calmed himself, "No, Dash, it isn't you. I'm happy for you. I really am. I'm jealous of you more like."

"What?" Dash glanced over at the shorter teen.

"I had friends when I was alive. When I died, my friendships died too. I've been flying around alone, doing my part to help this town, but alone. My only real contact with people is you. I'm sure you have a bunch of friends you can at least have the pretense of a relationship with."

"You're jealous of me?" Dash asked himself more than Phantom. "I can't fucking believe that."

"I just-"

"You have superpowers, you're good-looking, and you could go anywhere, be anywhere you want to and yet you stay in this shithole town. You can literally fuckin' disappear. You have total freedom, more or less and you stay in this place, Shitsville, USA." Dash said, "I am tied to this town. Can't reasonably run away. If I do, the second I use dad's credit card I'm found. That car… it's a wonder I get from point A to B within the town. Besides I think that thing has a Lojack in it."

"Being a teenager sucks," Danny surmised.

"Who you telling?" Dash answered."But you don't have all the shit that goes along with it."

"I still have to deal with crazy hormones and acne and dating."

"Wait. Dating? You mean, you're fucking ghost bitches?" Dash asked projecting that misogyny that was a genuine and integral part of his actually loving, sensitive character. It makes sense if you think about it. Little attraction to women means that he never really need to respect them, well, at least, not in his head.

"Well, no, but I wouldn't mind it."

"But yesterday you were like, you forgot what it felt like to live, but now you say you want to date people. I don't get you Phantom, I don't get what you're about."

"I see you people, down there living lives, most of you happy. All of you happier than me and I want a piece of it for myself. There's actually life after death so I want to see if I can build one for myself."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, I won't ask if you were…"

"I wasn't old enough to really know yet. There was this girl I liked, but you don't really…"

"But now? I mean now." Dash asked trying to get to the thrust of the issue. "I mean that you're not the most masculine guy, not that that means anything. You just don't seem like fuckin' bitches is one of the priorities."

"Fighting ghosts, and, as of late, talking to you in the afternoon have been the main priorities of my life."

"SO ARE YOU GAY" Dash sort of creamed out, before exhaling a bit, inhaling again, and continuing in a friendlier way, "Or aren't you?"

"Yes." The ghost answered, telling the truth though he felt none of the freedom that they all talked about. "Yes, I am." For all intensive purposes, he wasn't out of the closet yet. It was more like he let Dash in, and now the closet was entirely too cramped. Neither of them wanted to be evicted anytime soon though.

Dash nodded negatively, burying his head into his hands. The guilt became evident on his face as he looked up again into the distance. "I didn't mean to yell at you or pry into your life like that. It's just that I..." He made two tight fists and pounded on the wooden railing, "Why the fuck do I BULLY everyone? You're up here helping me out and all I do is scream at you."

"Do you bully everyone?" Danny asked knowing the answer damn well, but needing the insight into Dash's thought process.

"Yeah, not proud of it," Dash was swallowing his emotions, the way he had learned to earlier in life. "Did you bully people when you were alive?"

"I was a little scrawny kid," Danny answered, "So, no I did not."

"Did you ever want to?"

"No."

"Anyone ever bully you?" Dash asked, hoping the answer was no.

"Yes," The ghost had to think up an answer that didn't give away too much info but that was still honest, "I'd had been roughed up some, pushed up against lockers, been thrashed in the sandbox. That didn't kill me, so all of that stuff is you know… kinda trivial now.

"Yeah I guess it would be." He scratched the back of his neck, "You know, I don't know if I could stop bullying people if I tried. It's just…. I just feel better when I'm, you know, like dominating somebody. It feels right being in absolute control. Makes me forget myself and all the stuff I've caused to other people. It's like a big hole, I dig myself deeper trying to get out."

"And how're you going to break the cycle?" Danny asked.

"I don't know and that's the scary part."

"I know what you mean."

"How can a ghost kid know what I mean?"

"I am trapped in my own cycle. Catching ghosts, trapping them and sending them back to the ghost zone. Then they find a new way to escape. I gotta catch them all, but every time they escape. I have to find a new device or new trick to outsmart them. I'm pulling my hair out over here. I guess the first way out is to stop digging, but I'm not sure how exactly to do that."

"Sounds rough." Dash answered.

"It is."

"So how do you deal with the stress?"

"I fly," The ghost answered. "Fly and yell at the clouds and let all the baggage out. Fly up and down the atmosphere, up into the stratosphere. I usually hover at the tropopause and watch the clouds roll over the earth, Don't need oxygen so, it's all cool. It's really cold actually"

"Everyday?"

"Everyday I can."

"Even on cloudy or rainy days?" Dash didn't realize the metaphor that he just employed. Lancer would have been proud.

"The sun always shines over the thunderstorms."

"Cool," was all Dash could remark. "The highest I've ever been is at the peak of the roller coaster at Funland roller coaster."

"Maybe one day, I'll take you up there." Danny turned around and leaned on the fencing. "Not all the way up, just a couple thousand feet," He looked into the forest, half worried, half paranoid that they were being watched, not that any person could hear them. "It's not like I have anyone to take up there."

"Why don't you find someone? I mean I know there are plenty of chicks or dudes or whoever you're into who'd love to date you. I mean this chick I know, Paulina, is always talking about you."

"Really?" Dany would have been interested, but remember he was standing a foot away from his crush.

"Yeah she says that she wants to ya know… she's kind of a slut so…"

"Got it," the white-haired on answered.

"Can I ask you a question? And please don't answer it if it makes you uncomfortable." Dash was taking a risk.

"Shoot."

"Do you think I'm… do I look gay? Like do I look like a faggot?"

"Well, I can't exactly look and tell. I don't think anyone really can"

"I mean, when I'm on the locker room with the guys after the game. It's kinda hard, not my cock, I mean the circumstances." Dash shifted his weight uncomfortably, "I try to avert my eyes, I take a cold shower, I talk about the bitches I wanna fuck and all that straight shit, but can someone like look and tell that I'm not all there with them when we talk about girls. It's kinda easy not to be into them, the guys I mean. I think of them like my brothers, and I they're not really my type to douchey. Not that I'm like crazy, but like that I sort of have this whole fake life that… I don't know. If they ever found out, I'm fucking dead."

"I have some experience in being dead," Danny chuckled.

"I...didn't mean it like that I'm so, so, so sorr-"

"Don't worry, it's okay, I know what you mean. And Dash, you're the most macho person I've ever met so I don't think anybody's gaydar is registering on your account. Hostile, not homo."

"Good."

"But what are you going to do after High School is over and you don't have to see the assholes who make you, you know, hide yourself in the closet."

"What?" Dash was almost incredulous, "You think college football is going to be easier? You're nuts if you do. College is worse, more pressure with the NFL looking at you. Anything out of place and my life chances are fucking done."

"I know that you probably hear this from your teachers all the time, but what's your backup plan?"

"I'm not good at anything else."

"Yes you are."

"No, the fuck, I'm not," Dash yelled out into the distance.

"What are your grades like?"

"B's and C's, couple of A's"

"A's in what?"

"Well, P.E. duh, and uh algebra, chemistry and bio last year," He scratched his head.

Danny was impressed, "I'm shit at algebra and chem, so you're better than me."

"Numbers are easy."

"So if you don't get into football, how about becoming an accountant or a chemist. Make a drug that makes cum taste like vanilla." Danny said his tone unwavering

"Wh…" Dash could not hold back the laughter, "What a good idea."

"But I wouldn't know how to make that happen."

"Changing some of the proteins around."

"See, you know your stuff."

"I suck at English though."

"Who doesn't? They make you read stuff written like 400 years ago and you're supposed to like it." The ghost said, feeling like a normal teenager for the first time in month talkings with a friend. It's funny hot he felt like a normal teenager as he ran his hands through his glowing white hair.

"I know, with Shakespeare, the writing's kinda meh, but it's always interesting to see where it goes. Who'll get stabbed, or poisoned, or you know whatever"

"Sounds like my life after death. Never knowing what's going to happen."

"Damn, that's not fair on you," Dash surmised, "I thought death was, you know, resting in peace, but like no peace for you. Wait… wait a second, since you're dead, but not really dead, like you just keep on living. Are you gonna live forever?"

"Yes I will."

"Forever and ever and ever., God that sounds awful. Are you going to age?"

"No." Danny didn't feel like explaining the science, not now.

"You brought a new meaning to 'forever young'."

"I am henceforward immortal. Death has made me immortal."

"Sounds stupid, no offense." Dash was trying his best to not screw up this budding friendship.

"It is stupid and none taken. Life is stupid and apparently so is death," Danny answered.

"I don't intend on dying, not now, so I won't be joining you any time soon." Dash chuckled a little.

"Please avoid it as long as you can."

"I will, though it usually doesn't go this way. I mean most people don't end up ghosts in the end. I mean, and I don't wanna make you tell all of your business if you don't want to, but did you die in some supernatural thing?"

"It was an accident. In a lab, lots of electricity involved, chemicals, and gamma radiation too. I hurt like all hell. It was like being on fire on the outside and inside. I couldn't move. All I could do was scream. Every piece of my DNA, every cell was changed forever, so death is a fearsome thing, especially mine. I only took the shock for a little while, but I guess that's all it took. Life's a delicate thing. Don't waste it."

"And I'm trying to hold mine together," Dash was trying to figure out the way to formulate his next question. He stammered and plowed his way through this next sentence, or sentences "I have like a really big favor to ask you- and I hope that it won't make you- uncomfortable, but I know it might and I hope if you don't like it you can just forget about it… but it's- it's killing me inside I mean- not like, literally, not like you." The cluster of words continued, "No offense I didn't mean dead like you, It's just that I really need to know and you're the only one who could ever tell me-"

Danny had had enough, "Oh my God, just spit it out, Dash"

"Fine. Could you… Could you find out if Danny Fenton is gay or bi?"

Danny coughed and choked a little, "What?"

"I mean, Phantom, and I know that you have more important things to do like saving the city every time something goes wrong, but I have to know. I feel like it's possible. I don't know if I'm right, but something, something in my gut is telling me that I have a chance with him. Something about him, I think, maybe if I work for it, and it would probably be hard that maybe he might like me back. But if he's straight, I'll just back off and be content to touch him the only way I can, pushing him up against the lockers."

Danny struggled to contain himself hearing how Dash had been pining for him. It was the first time he felt wanted in a long, long time Danny felt wanted, liked, and accepted, even if he had to double and not tell Dash. Not now, maybe not ever. Danny wanted to blurt out the truth right then and tell Dash, show him what it is.

"You know what?" Danny said. "I'll do it."

"You will?"

"Not even two minutes ago, I told you not to waste your life. Waiting is a waste of time and I don't want you to make any of the mistakes I made waiting for things that I didn't get to see while I was alive." Danny answered.

"How are you gonna-"

"Spy on him?" Danny asked, ready to answer it, "That's easy. You didn't know how long I was here before before I scared you."

"You're actually gonna do this?" Dash didn't know whether or not to be scared or excited.

"On a few conditions."

"First, and most obvious, you can't tell anyone. In fact, you never, ever met me."

"Of course, like still in the closet here."

"Second, you cannot alter your behaviour. Everything has to be the same between you and m-, him"

Dash didn't notice the slip-up. "But, I'm kinda embarrassed about how I act, knowing that you're gonna be watching him, and therefore how me and him interact is gonna be…"

"Absolutely necessary," Inviso-Bill cut the mortal off, "I have to see and hear how he reacts. Does he mumble under his breath? If he does, what does he say? Does he have to hide a boner once you put him down."

"Okay, you're right." Dash nodded, "How long do you think this'll take?"

Danny's devious mind wanted to see how he could use this to his advantage.

"That depends, maybe day one I'll figure it out, maybe it'll take a week or two, or maybe even a month."

"I mean can't you follow him home. He's a teenage boy, he's gonna have to watch some porn sooner or later, and since it don't look like he's fucking anybody, he's gotta be putting one of those hands to work. Ya know, somehow I think he's a lefty when it come to that. Might even be big enough to use both." Dash licked his lips, then bit his bottom lip, still using that power to fantasize to image Fenton riding him.

Danny took note of the grin on Dash's face, somewhat alarmed that Dash knew that in matter of self-love Danny did prefer to use his left hand, and once he was nearing the end would use both. It was uncanny. Maybe Dash was intuitive or maybe he had been climbing up the balcony like a twenty-first century Romeo. Danny didn't know how to feel about possibly being 'Juliet' or Jules as it would be.

"Okay, I will. We'll see how often he goes at it. He might not do it as often as you do."

"And how would you know how often I do?" Dash chuckled a bit.

"I don't, but with all the pent up tension you always talk about. I know you're almost certainly chomping at the bit right now. Especially since you probably have a dirty image of him in your head right now. Am I right?"

"Guilty."

"So if I had to guess," Danny was enjoying being able to talk about literally anything it seemed with him, "You're a three times a day sorta guy, when you wake up, in the locker room and right before you go to sleep to relax you. Probably in the shower."

"Shit, you been watching me?" Dash asked jokingly.

"No, but I'm kinda starting to understand you, even like you, not like that."

"I like you too, not like that." Dash answered, "Too tanned, bro"

"Fair enough."

* * *

Meanwhile...

"He's not answering his phone." Sam said, putting her smartphone down on Tucker's bedside table. They were in his room this time, fully clothed, lying on top of the sheets. She wasn't in the mood and neither was he, They had spent the day arguing over Danny and whether or not the relationship was worth salvaging. Tucker thought not, Sam, being a member of the gentler, fairer sex thought that they ought to try. She looked all around her, taking in the white ceiling and blue walls and then at the mahogany of the footboard of the bed. Lastly she looked down at the brown sheets

"I'm tired of him," Tucker said huffing a little, "He doesn't want to talk. That's fine."

"I just don't want him to get hurt." Sam said, "He's just vulnerable is all. With all that he goes through I still think it's up to us to try."

"You just did." Tucker answered, "Multiple times."

"I know," Sam said, lamenting "It rang at first and went to voicemail but when I tried again it didn't ring. It just straight went to voicemail."

"He must've turned it off when he saw that you called." Tucker reasoned bitterly.

"Or it died." Sam retorted. "Look, I know we both feel betrayed by him, but we have to give him a chance."

"Fool me once, shame on you. You're not going to get a chance to do again."

"I know, Tucker. I'm confused about it too. I get angry, then I'll get depressed, then I'll just feel indifferent, like I won't care what happens to him. Like, "Good luck, have a nice life."

"I just feel angry. I shared everything. We put our lives on hold. When we find out that he's keeping secrets, he gets mad at us. What the fuck?"

"Tucker, I don't know." She really hated to see her friend, and, of late, lover so angry and twisted up.

"Doesn't call, doesn't write. Won't even make eye contact anymore. He looked right through me as if I wasn't there."

"Maybe it's shame or… or guilt." Sam was hoping against hope that is what it would be one of those two options, "I think, if anything he wishes he could just be invisible, or that a hole would just open up in the ground and swallow him up. I'm just afraid, because if that's what it is, we're doing him harm. And as mad as I am. As mad as we are, neither of him wants him to get hurt." Sam's softness had its desired effect on T.

"Or maybe he doesn't want to be our friend anymore and that would hurt the most. We caught him and I understand that we probably really mortified him, but I thought we were closer than that. I mean this is some trifling stuff in the context of our friendship." Tucker said.

"I-" Sam started but the sentence never came to life.

"I am going to give it one more chance. Tomorrow. I am going to put all of this stuff aside and really try my hardest to patch this up. We both should"

"I want to, too," Sam came back to life, "I really do."

"But if he rebuffs me, or us, I think it'll be official that I'll have to throw in the towel. We'll be done. He can fight the ghosts without me and do whatever he likes. Is that fair?"

Sam perked up, "Sounds fair to me. I think I'll do the same. I'll give it a try, one more try, and if he doesn't care anymore, neither will I.


	6. Six

Had finals AND my computer needed repairs, so I'm sorry for the delay.  
I'm free for the summer so these chapters will come out more regularly :)

"Shakespeare does a clever thing with rhythm class. As I explained to you yesterday, iambic pentameter is continued throughout his plays regardless of the mood of setting or the tone of the characters," Lancer was sitting , sort of resting on the edge of his desk holding his copy of King Lear in his hand. "The constant heartbeat of the words represent the life of the play, or the normality of the characters. In this scene somebody breaks the rhythm. Who is it?" Lancer put the book down on the desk. He scanned the class, a couple of hands were raised, but those were the students who always answered. Most of the class shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Danny and Dash were included in that lot, not having had time to read any of the play

"Well?" Lancer continued, "Was it Goneril, Oswald, King Lear, Edmund, Cordelia? Who was it?"

A geeky kid in the back of the class fidgeted behind his desk, "Ooh, ooh, pick me."

"No, my dear Mister Ballard," Lancer kept it professional at all times, "I will not pick you because I know you know." Lancer was even-toned. "And Miss Trent too, you might as well put your hand down too."*

Lancer scanned the room again, "Mister Fenton, do you know?"

"Well," Danny had skimmed the sparknotes earlier and had a general, very general idea of the story. "Well, it's King Lear, because, uh, with the way his own mind and all the opposing forces messing with him, he gets pulled in like eight different directions. It's like a double struggle. You know, what's going on in his head and what's going on outside of it too."

"Why, Mister Fenton," Lancer's face was pure astonishment, "You're absolutely right."

Dash's ears perked up. Those sentiments sounded and felt so familiar, but he couldn't place where he had heard them. There was something endearing about how Danny spoke, but those butterflies in his stomach were there anyway.

"'Fie! Fie! Fie! Pah Pah!' is the moment when King Lear snaps and when the smooth rhythm of Shakespeare's writing snaps too." Lancer continued. He looked down at his watch, "Okay class, we have about three minutes left. For homework. . ."

Dash scooched up to Danny's ear and whispered, "I didn't know you were a geek, too, Fen-toad. Bet you like drama too. You wanna be Juliet, don't you?"

Danny visibly squirmed under Dash's warm breath on his left ear, not knowing if it was from discomfort or pleasure, because he was definitely feeling both. The words 'wrong play, asshole' wanted so badly to be said, but Danny held them back, only increasing the violence and noticeability of his quivering. Dash smirked at the reaction, It was a like there was blood in the water, and Dash was a shark ready to eat Danny up.

* * *

Danny was putting his books in his locker. It was fifth period, 12:45, his scheduled lunch. He was using this time to switch out his books. It was a simple schedule this afternoon: geometry, biology, and PE at the end. Danny felt a shiver and that familiar cold, blue breath came through him and left him, making him shiver. The lights in the hallway went bluish-purple. Danny's sight was like looking at a negative picture A ghost was in the midst and Danny's sense of duty, no matter how begrudgingly it did, came to the forefront of his mind.

"Not now." Danny said exhaling, lightly tapping his head on the locker door. Danny ran to the janitor's closet about ten feet down the hallway. He shut the door behind him and took a quick yet surprisingly thorough survey of the room. There was no one inside (the only fact he needed to know), and he made doubly sure of it.

"Going ghost," he shouted, as the familiar rings of brilliant white light formed about his waist, like two hula hoops. One ascended above his head, transforming his garb into the familiar jet black costume with the white insignia. His skin tanned, and his hair became the color of fresh snow in the same instant. His lower half made the same transformation. He went intangible and flew up and out of the school. His 'ghost sense' told him that the enemy was outside.

He rematerialized above the school and hovered about ten feet above the roof. The sky was a dusky purple, though it was the middle of the day. Danny waited knowing that the ghost would make himself or herself known. Knowing his luck, it would probably only be someone annoying.

He was right.

"I am the BOX GHOST," Danny heard from the eponymous ghost behind him. Danny made the rotation to look the most annoying of ghouls.

"What do you want? Don't you see that I'm busy?"

"The Box Ghost does not care that you are busy. The Box Ghost wants you to tremble in fear while I fight you."

"So you wanna box me?" Danny had to use the pun; it would probably be the only fun he had today.

"Yes, the Box Ghost will box you, puny one."

Danny reached for his side for his thermos. He kept it in his hip now since these were solo jobs. For all he knew Sam and Tucker were probably fucking at that very moment. (Just for reference, at that moment, they only were making out at that particular moment, not actually fucking. That was done after school.)

"You shall be defeated by the wrath of the Box Gh-"

"Nope," Danny said, opening the thermos and watching Boxy getting sucked in.

He replaced the cap onto the top of the thermos and watched as the sky and environs returned to their natural color. The sky turned blue and the grass went from blood red back to green.

"Danny is tired of that third person stuff." He half-joked, half-sneered. He flew back down into the school, into the same janitor's closet. He looked around again and transformed back into Danny Fenton, student at Casper High. The same rings of light illuminated the room once more. He wished that he could figure out how to transform without the light.

He scarcely had a chance to take a deep breath before he heard the bell ringing. No lunch for him today. Somehow fighting ghosts had a way of accelerating time. He walked out of the room readjusted his pants, wiggling his belt to make them fit more comfortably. He swept his head back and forth once more to make sure he was cover and saw no one.

* * *

At Mount Amity

"...Yeah it was weird," Dash said, looking over the town again, the Phantom looking over the edge too, "I saw like a flash under the door, and then Fenton walked out a few seconds later. I was like a really bright flash too. "

"Where were you when you saw this?" Danny asked a bit concerned. His cover had been blown, not completely. This was a close call. Absolutely too close.

"I was going to my locker, right when the bell rang. I had just put my head around the corner. I dropped one of my books and went to pick it up. He wouldn't have seen me, like I was still kinda hidden behind the corner."

"Oh."

"But that flash that came under the door though. It was like real strange, man. I was like 'the fuck was that?'. And then he just comes out of the room and kinda fidgeted his pants- Oh shit. Shit! I get it. I get it!"

"Get what?"

"Well, I kinda watched and waited to see if someone was going to come out of the room. I waited all through switching time and waited a little after sixth period started. No one came out of the room, so I went in to see if there was anyone in it."

"And?"

"It was empty," Dash admitted, "I think I know what he was doing though. I mean think about it. He has a smartphone. It's got a camera. I've seen it. It's gotta flash on it too AND he comes out of the room adjusting his pants. You see where I'm going here?"

The ghost hadn't a clue, "Nope, totally lost here."

"You think that little perv… you think he coulda been takin' some nice dick pix?" Dash chuckled, smug in his contention.  
Danny started screaming inside, embarrassed that Dash could think that. (He wasn't embarrassed at the size of his dick. Dash will find that out later :) )

"Oh, come on." Danny said incredulously. "That's a bit of a stretch isn't it? Most people are too scared to do anything remotely sexual on the school grounds."

"He coulda been jacking off." Dash thought aloud, not letting his hypothesis go, ignoring the reason that the halfa brought to the conversation "And I think that thing's a pretty decent size. Not bigger than mine, but who knows? He might be packing. Hopefully, he is." Dash sort of had a distant, daydreamy look when he pondered probable penis proportions for Danny Fenton.

"I wouldn't know what you considered packing, " Danny said, avoiding lying, just.

"You know, if it swings independently of his body. If it sways on its own, If it needs to be fed separately" Dash answered as if that was a scientific fact He pivoted back to his original argument. "You know some straight guys even like watching their own jack off vids. Whatever though, just a theory. Maybe, maybe he was on a video chat with someone and he noticed that the period was about to end."

"What makes you think he's such a perv?" Danny asked.

"I don't know," Dash spoke, "He ain't dating anyone from what I see and he's a teenage boy. He's got to cum at some point. He's always so fucking tense, like even when I'm not around, it's like he's trying not to get caught doing something. He's all squirrelly and that's cuz he's not emptying those balls enough."

"Maybe." Danny seriously considered what was just said and grasped that there was some validity to those statements. Dash was shrewder than most gave him credit for.

"I thought you were supposed to be watching him, anyway." Dash responded, snapping the ghost back to the present.

"I was busy." Danny answered truthfully.

"Busy?"

"Yes, busy."

"Busy how?"

"Well, there was a ghost around your school, and I was around, but ghosts are the top priority. This one wasn't a big deal, but still had to get him before I could watch anyone."

"Which one was it?" Dash asked.

"That stupid Box Ghost."

"The one who makes matchboxes, shoe boxes, crates, makes all that stuff fly around. More annoying than anything. Probably couldn't hurt a fly if he tried"

"Yup," Danny said, "exactly."

* * *

Meanwhile in Sam's Room

The lovers were looking up at the ceiling, clothed on top of her black sheets.

"He handled himself just fine," Tucker said.

"We should have helped him."

"He should have ask. You have not because you ask not." Tucker replied. "If Danny wanted us to help him with the Box Ghost, he'd have done it."

"You're right. I think Danny's done with us." Sam said looking at the ceiling. Something in her voice still had hope. Hope against hope.

"Well people come and go like the seasons. Only a few really stick around. I'm not mad anymore."

"Yeah, I feel, I guess resigned to the fact that Danny's not with us in any way anymore."

"Resignation, yeah. That's the right word."

"We'll always keep his secret though, no need for anyone else to know," Sam said.

"Yeah." Their voices sounded tired.

"I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I mean I'm happy in a way. You and me, we get to normal again. You and me, we get to run away from the danger now, not towards it. WE get to have free time again, and we don't have to worry about ghosts. On the other hand, he's still out there, all alone. He's in peril constantly now as always, but he's lost two sets of eyes and ears. I feel good for me, for us, but not for him."

"Sam, forget-"

"I can't forget him."

"Well, then focus on us." Tucker suggested. "You and me, we have a thing going. I don't know what it is, but I think it's nice."

"I do too."

"I like being around you," Tucker said, starting to turn all mushy, "I don't think about him, cuz all I'm focus on is trying to keep you happy."

"When did you get all Romeo?"**

"Sorry, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"My world fell apart when we saw that. Everything I thought was real, everything I believed was shattered right then and there. You're the only real thing I have left. If you weren't sitting here right now, I'd be lost in cyberspace right now, playing myself to death."

"I'd probably be strung out in a biker bar someplace." Sam admitted.

"So can we be hopelessly dysfunctional together?" Tucker asked chuckling a little.

"Deal." She giggled.

"So how dysfunctional do you want to be this afternoon?" Tucker asked.

"What are the options?" Sam asked putting on her naughty airs.

"Well, we could be totally socially acceptable and go downstairs and bowl or go get a cuppa coffee. Or we could be mildly annoying and go to a movie and make out all during it. Maybe a little worse and my hands and find their way down that skirt. Or we could be total fucking degenerates and go up to Mount Amity and fuck like wild animals."

"Hmm, I like the way you think Mister Foley."

* * *

Danny and Dash on top of Mount Amity

"...sure, if you want to." Danny said. "If you're ready, if you want to, we can do it."

"I'm just kind a curious about it. Always thought about it. Been thinking about it a lot more since I met you. Well, I hope you're okay with it, I'm just really really interested to see how it feels."

"Well, I'm not doing this until you get rid of your nerves." Danny was authoritative. "I'll do it, but you need to get yourself ready first."

"Okay, okay, you're right. If we want to do this, I do have to chill out" Dash said, "I'll relax." Dash took a deep breath. This was something he had been wanting to do, dreaming about for a while now, but now it was going to happen. He was anxious, truly nervous and excited.

* * *

Tucker made his car come to a stop in the parking lot at the bottom of the mountain. It was a black sedan, not too old, a boxy domestic model. It was the perfect car for a teenager, nice enough to take pride in, but not so new as to be afraid of denting it. He parked on a bit of a slope, so he put the parking brake on. It was about a three-quarter of a mile hike up to the place where they could have sex discreetly (that depended on how much Sam wanted to scream). They got out of the car, and Tucker popped the trunk and took out a rolled up blanket. It was a soft one too, red plaid and filled with plush down. He tucked the roll under his left arm, shut the trunk, and pressed the 'lock' button on his keys. The car beeped twice to indicate that it was locked. He placed his keys back in his pocket.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Sure." They held hands. He was on the left and she was on the right as they started the walk up to the clearing in the trees where they would be 'dysfunctional'. "You have any rubbers?"

"Yeah, I think I got a couple in my back pocket."

"Good."

They walked in silence making their way up the meandering, gently sloped incline. They were nearing the place where they could go off of the path and hook up properly.

"Shh," Tucker said suddenly, quietly, "D'ya hear that?"

Sam looked around to focus, she sharpened her listening. It was faint but there was something out there. A voice, maybe two. The voices were getting closer to them. Tucker pulled them off of the path and into the woods. They hid in the bushes and the voices became distinct. It was Danny, and…

"Is that Dash?" Sam asked.

"I think so." Tucker answered.

Soon the words were easy to be made out from the halfa and the Baxter.

"Just grab unto my hips," Danny said.

"Like this?"

"Perfect," Danny's voice was strained.

"Are you sure you can handle me?" Dash's voice asked, sounding concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"All right, let's go" Dash said.

In that moment a shadow flashed over them, like a plane was passing overhead. Tucker and Sam listened further, but they were in silence again. After a moment, the two of them emerged from the bushes. The brushed themselves off and looked up at the sky.

* * *

In the skies above Mount Amity

"It's actually not that bad up here," Dash said, finally settling into a decent position. He had his arm stretched out, parallel to his shoulders. His arms were interlocked with the ghost's. He looked up at ghost boy. His view was somewhat obscured by the sun as the ghost took them around in a gentle flight.

"I'm glad you like it." Danny said, "I told you that it wasn't that bad. It's really peaceful up here."

"You're right," Dash admitted. He looked up and seeing the ghost boy's profile, realized how much the ghost boy resembled Fenton. The nose was just as pointy. The eyes were similar. It was uncanny. He blushed realizing that he was sort of attracted to the ghost boy. And the only reason for the attraction was because of how he looked like Fenton. He looked down at the ground. They were flying above the mountain path. He saw Sam and Tucker walking down below.

Dash, in classic Baxter style, screamed out to those below, "Hey dweebs! What are doing down there? Gonna fuck?"

The couple looked up from the ground and saw it. They saw something, probably the only thing that was completely anathema to them. Danny was literally arm in arm, hand in hand with Dash Baxter.

Danny looked down at the ground to see who Dash had just screamed at. He saw that it was Sam and Tucker. For the second time that day, he started to scream inside. He looked over at Dash and if looks could kill, Dash would've had two holes lasered through his head.

"What the fuck did you do that for?" Danny asked, not masking his anger or how stunned he was.

"It doesn't matter," Dash replied flippantly, "They're a couple of nobodies anyway. Who are they gonna tell? Each other?"

Danny kept silent. Dash was right, they didn't have anyone to blab to. It just sealed the fate of his friendship with them. It was over, undeniably over, Shit just changed, big time. There was nothing he could say without revealing to much to Dash or lying to him.

* * *

"Fuck him," Sam was breathing fire, "Fuck the both of them. If that's who Danny Fenton wants to hang out with, he could go to hell."

Tucker was surprising calm now, mostly because his opportunity to get some pussy was on a knife edge. She would either be too angry to have sex, or just angry enough to have that passionate, torrid sex that he dreamed about. This was every teenage boy's fantasy. He spoke "please, cal-"

"NO, Tucker, I will not fucking calm down. For all these fucking years, all Danny would bitch about to us is how much that asshole used to torture him. Now all of a sudden, out of the fucking blue, their flying drifting in the air arm in arm. I don't know when they got so fucking buddy-buddy, but if he's a friend of Dash's and that crew, he ain't a friend of mine. You wanna be one of the kool kids? You wanna be one of those shallow, pompous assholes? Go right the fuck ahead! " She yelled at the sky, though they were long gone and way out of earshot.

"Sam, please, don't let him ruin-"

"Oh, no, Tucker, he's not gonna ruin shit," Sam stated emphatically, gritting her teeth, "I came up here to fuck, and that bitch up there isn't gonna ruin my good time." She grabbed Tucker's arms and started to drag him further up the path. He was being pulled along, and the boner in his shorts was throbbing. He was gonna get some hot, angry sex that afternoon.

* * *

"Can we do that again sometime?" Dash asked as they landed in the lot near his car. "I mean, I'd really love to."

"Yeah, sure," Danny was glad to, he liked the feeling of Dash clinging on to him, "Just no more yelling to the ground, can't have you blowing our cover."

"Okay, I won't do that again." Dash walked to the driver's side of his car. "I'll make sure they don't tell anyone."

"NO, I'll tell them," Danny said, "Don't worry, I have a way of putting my point across."

"I knew I liked you," Dash complimented him, then stuttered, "Not like that, man, not that you're bad looking, in fact you're kinda good looking, but I mean (gasp) I like how you know how to get stuff done. You see a problem and you fix it, like a hero would. I won't mess with them, okay? I won't."

"Good," Danny said, hands on his hips, "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll be here." Dash said.

He opened the door and got in. He turned the key and turned on the ignition. He rolled down the on the passenger side, and bent over to the side so he speak clearly out of it. The ghost boy went over and bent to see what Dash wanted to say, "And um, thank you, I really enjoyed myself."

"Don't worry about it." Danny said, giving a warm, gentle, almost loving smile.

Dash's eyes shot wide open for a second before returning to their normal state. That smile. It was so fucking familiar. Dash stammered, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay." Danny stood up and watched Dash roll the window up. He stood, again, with his hands on his hips. He took a couple of steps as he watched Dash back out of the spot, turn his vehicle around and drive off.

Danny went intangible and flew home. He didn't want to be seen again.

Down below him Tucker and Sam were being 'dysfunctional' like wild animals, intense, perfervid, and unprotected.

* * *

*If you know who Tom Ballard and Diana Trent are, you are truly awesome :)

** See how I worked in, okay, shoehorned in two references to Shakespeare ^.^


	7. Seven

Sorry, I had major writer's block.

* * *

Sam's phone buzzed on her bedside table. She was alone in the dark of her room at night. After their trysts, she usually felt empty. This time she felt worse, she felt bottomless, hollow. Nothing could fill her up. She was dejected and rejected in a way that she had never felt before. And remember she was a goth with anal retentive, socially conservative parents. She raged against everything they stood for.

Everything she had loathed, everything that she has defined a vice had changed. Things to be loathed were now loved, lauded, and those vices morphed into virtues. She was worth abandoning and Dash was worth taking along. She felt like that first slice of bread in the loaf, touched, defiled, molested, and never wanted. At the end she would be thrown out, still only wanting, _only wanting_ to be consumed. Danny threw her out that earlier, carelessly, callously.

And that prick, Dash Baxter… the blond bombshell… the blond beefcake… the blonde bully

Dash, for his part of this pathetic analogy, knotted the bag and took it out to the curb. And she and Tucker were alone in that plastic bread bag, in the garbage. What's worse than that was that she had doubted Tucker's emotion. She thought him dramatic, immature, a little bitchy. She thought he was overreacting, that all this emotion was just some misplaced anger. But when the ocular and audible proof presented itself so obnoxiously, she had to apologize to him. And she did.

Not quite with words though…

She expressed her anguish and misery through her 'dysfunction', their 'dysfunction'. It felt good at the time. Fuck, it felt great at the time, if she's honest. Tucker was a skilled lover. But once her pulled out after the final thrusts of passion and rapture, she felt it again. Empty. Hollow. (Literally too.)

It was not anyone's fault really, but she couldn't see that. Both sides seemed to dig into their own narrative. Both sides had valid point, reasonable grievances, but neither wanted to admit where they were wrong. They both ignored their own bullshit. It was like politics.

The phone buzzed again and she snapped out of her contemplation. She sat up and grabbed it. Somebody had texted her.

Danny: Can we talk plz

Sam: Y shud i talk 2 u

Danny: Cuz i need 2 talk 2 you abt what u saw 2day

Sam: Just call me.

In short order the phone starting ringing. She held it in her hands as it vibrated. She waited for it to ring a couple of times before pressing the green button on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Just let me explain." He sounded nervous and upset on the other end. He was nervous as he sat in his blue bedroom, with the lamp on. He sat at the edge of the bed, feet on the carpet, his toes curling in their socks. He held the phone in his left and nervously ran his right hand through his hair.

She didn't reply. He bit his lip, nearly drawing blood. His face flushed as the silence rang in his ears like a gunshot.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Go ahead, Danny. I wanna hear what you have to say."

He heard the bitterness in her voice and wanted to assuage it, "So, um... about today. I... he kinda wanted to see what it was like to fly, so I took him up-" That was rather briefer than he wanted to be, but he was nervous. "And he had fun… he liked the way the wind felt in his hair."

"Is that all Danny?" She sounded impatient.

"I…" He couldn't find any words

"When did you start talking to him?" She asked.

"Only, a few days ago." He answered "I swear."

"Why?" She asked.

"I… I can't tell you." He had promised Dash that he wouldn't tell and he intended to keep his word.

"Why can't you?"

"I made a promise to him that I wouldn't tell."

"Not even me and Tucker?" She was irate.

"I'm sorry." Danny said, "But you know how it is keeping secrets for people. It's not worth it if you can't keep the secret."

"You're some piece of work, Danny whoever you are." Sam retorted. "A real wonder."

"Excuse me?" Danny seriously though he misheard her. "I do beg your pardon."

"You really are a piece of work, running into the arms are your tormentor and snuggling up to his chest. Fleeing from your friends right into the arms of your bully. I ask you why and you can't even tell me. You can't even be honest and tell me why you're all lovey dovey."

"Sam, I just can't tell you. It's a trust thing. We all have secrets and shit that we don't want people to know. If I told you, I'd be breaking the trust-"

"You trust this guy after he's given you multiple black eyes, shoved you into lockers, shoved you, kicked you, spat on you-"

"He never, ever spat on me." Danny said meekly. "And he's never given me a black eye. Not once, not ever."

"Oh," Sarcastic Samantha started saying saucily, "Forgive me. I didn't mean to exaggerate. So he had never spat on you or blackened your eyes. But he has punched you, kicked you, shoved you, slapped you, ripped your clothes."

"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing Danny, I don't know what happened to you. You know, I really don't. And what's worse is that you switch up all your feelings for someone who is ugly inside and out."

"He's-"

"A tyrant, a batterer, a bully. The list goes on and on, a pig, a torturer"

"I'm disarming him. He's probably going to start giving up on that bully stuff soon."

"Not soon enough for the bruises he's given, for the bumps on the back of your head when he slams you into the wall or lockers."

"And slowly but surely he's becoming my friend."

"No," Sam pointed out, "He's friends with the cool superhero, Danny Phantom, not Danny Fenton."

"Those two people are one and the same. Me."

"Not to him" She reminded, "I don't think he would ever push the ghost boy into the lockers or kick or shove him."

"He's becoming my friend, Sam, period, end of sentence."

"I thought I was your friend."

"You _are_ my friend." He was nervous that she doubted that. "We're just going through a rough patch right now. This bemp in the road doesn't stop you from being my friend., at least, not on my end of the deal"

"So how can you hang out with that clique?"

"I'm not hanging with them, just him."

There was a pause on her end, before a disgusted teen answered back, "Oh my fucking God! Are you _dating him?"_ She said those last two word with the sort of horror one has when they see something gory. She vomited the words.

"No." He voice was flat, iding offense at her derogatory tone.

"Then what were you doing up on that mountain?"

"Just talking."

"Yeah, and I just talk to Tucker." She clearly didn't believe him.

"I'm telling the truth."

"But not about Dash. You're perfectly willing to lie for him, the bully, the villain of your life." She was deeply unimpressed with his answers and even more deeply disenchanted with this entire line of conversations. The anger had stopped mounting up inside her for this little bit. She wanted more information about this, about the two of them.

"He's not a villain. Vlad is a villain. Dan is a villain. Dash isn't the villain of my life or anyone's life. He means well. He doesn't actually want to hurt anyone. He's just a guy with a lot of aggression. And, actually, if I'm honest, he really is a good guy on the inside."

"Huh, he's a good guy on the inside," She repeated the phrase out of deep disbelief that she had actually heard it. She spoke again, "I'll believe it when he's a good guy on the outside Danny." She argued with him, "When all his goodness is out in the open to see. Tell him to walk on water or, or fly all by himself and then I'll believe he's good."

"You're being dramatic, Sam." He said, getting a little irked at what he felt was silly commentary.

"He sure was dramatic this afternoon, yelling from the sky like a moron."

"Oh my God," Danny huffed in exasperation, "That was nothing, he called you dweebs. That really is no big deal. And he's not a moron, Sam.."

"Okay, then. He's a retard." Sam's usually impeccable PC left the building through the back door.

"No, actually, he's very smart and thoughtful on the inside."

"I want to see it, and then I will believe you Danny."

"I wouldn't lie about this. Stop calling me a liar. I'm not a liar and he's not a moron.

"Not a moron? Ha! He asked, shouted at the top of his lungs for all the world to hear, if we were going to fuck. Do you know how fucking humiliated I was?"

"But you _were_ up there to fuck." Danny said. "That's exactly what you did when we left, I'm sure."

"So what? This is my body, and I can do what the fuck I like with my own fuckin' body. I can sleep with whoever I want to Danny without your new so-called friend yelling at me from above."

"I told him not to do that ever again And I made him promise that he wouldn't tell."

"I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Knowing him he's so stupid, he'd probably forget not to tell. And then what, Tucker and me will be exposed especially with those stupid preppy kids looking down their noses, laughing at us.

"You're worth more than all of them put together." Danny said, knowing when he finished that it didn't hit the mark.

"What happens when he tells Danny? Tell me that! Tell me right goddamn now what is going to happen if he tells his shitty little friends what he didn't actually fucking see this afternoon."

"He won't tell!" The ghost boy replied.

"How do you know?"

"Because he said he wouldn't." Danny said, "And I believe him. With me, he's honest to a fault."

"Sure, and I eat meat." Sam remarked sardonically.

"He'll keep his word. In fact, you really don't need to worry about it at all."

"Why?" She asked, "Why don't I need to worry that the blond blockhead won't say anything?"

"Because he was worried that you would tell."

"What?" She was definitely surprised by the

"He didn't want anyone knowing that he was up there." Danny pivoted, "So let's make this quid pro quo. You stay quiet, he stays quiet and it never happened."

"You think I'm going to do a deal with the devil?" Sam asked.

"What's worse dirt, Sam? Him being friends with Danny Phantom, or you and Tucker going at it in the woods like animals?" Danny was trying his best to explain it to her. Makes perfect sense to me.

She ignored him outright and replied "And what's worse is that you're acting like his little _errand boy_." She continued churlishly, "He fucks you over and then you apologize for him. You really are something else. Maybe sending you into that portal fried your brain too. Maybe dying killed all your good sense too."

"Well, Sam," Danny took a deep breath, really trying to preserve what was left of their friendship, "We can't change the past. There's nothing either of us can do about it. I know that right now our friendship has been strained and I'm sorry about that, but… But my dying was good for me, for you, for Amity Park. I wouldn't change anything about it. Not the pain I felt, not the circumstances. Nothing. I'm not bitter about it."

"There it is Danny," she almost screamed, "Me, me, me. What about me and Tucker, lying for you, covering for you, putting our lives on hold for you. What about us losing sleep, bleeding, sweating, crying over you. What about us getting possessed by ghosts and getting spells cast on us, getting hit, cut up, stalked because of you."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't ask to be put in this position Sam. But, here I am doing it without complaint. All I try to do is have a little break, interaction with someone who isn't you or Tucker, and you bitch at me about you not wanting to be with you. You just talked about how much I fucked up your life and now you want me to be around you all the time?" Danny had finally lost his patience. "What do you want? Tell me right now what the fuck you actually want? Do you want space or do you want me constantly under you?"

"I want you to be our friend again."

"Whose fault is that?!"

"Well, it ain't our fault." Sam said dismissively.

"What the fuck?" Danny's voice actually reverberated in his room making the walls rattle a bit, "You sneak into my house, open my door to my bedroom without knocking, and it MY FAULT?"

"You lied to us," Sam blurted out, "Why didn't you just tell us that you were gay?" The words came out more from hurt than hate. "You could have told us. We watched you die, Danny. You could've told you that you were into dudes."

"It was none of your business." Danny answered.

"Yes it is?"

"How is who I want to fuck any of your business?" Danny's crude but pointed question seemed to cut right to the heart of the matter.

"We know everything else about each other Danny. There's no pretention. At least there wasn't. Now, with something like that being hidden we have to get to know you again."

"No you don't. It's still me, same voice, same hair, same clothes, same eyes, same mouth, same nose, same everything. Nothing changed about me."

"Except, our perception of you."

"You have a problem with me bei-"

"No, Danny. It's the twenty-first century." She answered, "It's just that I thought that-"

"Oh," Danny said softly, finally putting it together, "I didn't know that you felt that way. I wouldn't have let you think that there was a chance on purpose. I wouldn't lie to you like that."

"It's just hard to believe you, Danny." She sounded just as sullen as she did in the beginning, "It was just a little thing that you could have told us."

"If it's so small why do you care?"

"Because it's important."

"So," Danny concluded, "It's not small."

"It's not that you're gay. It- it... This just represents something big to me and Tucker. We poured our all into this ghost hunting thing. We committed ourselves to you completely. We never lied to you, never withheld our feeling and thoughts. You let us down Danny. If we could be stupid honest with you, you could have told us this little thing about you."

"If it's so little, why should I have to tell you?" Danny asked.

"You should have had no problem telling us because it's so little." She gritted her teeth back at him."But if it's of so little consequence, why tell?"

"Why not tell?" She asked back.

"Because it's my secret, my life, my body, my mouth, my dick, my ass."

"And the second we starting fighting ghosts together, we thought that there were no more secrets, big, small, ugly, or indifferent." She answered.

"Well, tell me this, since the whole thing was a matter of sex and sexuality," Danny prefaced the question, "Did I need to know how often Tucker jacked off?"

"That's not the same."

"How isn't it?"

"Because we knew he was straight, Danny. WE know that there's nothing about him that makes him different, not that being different is bad. It's just kind of important to know. It's kinda just something friends are supposed to know. I know you weren't ready to come out yet. We weren't ready to start fighting ghosts, but we did."

"Sam, what are you saying to me?" Danny replied, "We've done nothing for the past twenty minutes but talk in a circle, talk past each other. What are you really saying? What do you mean by all of this?

"I guess I'm saying that I don't trust you, Danny. You've been dishonest from the start and you were unapologetic when you got caught." She said it calmly, resigned to the fact that she was losing a friend. "It's hard to be around someone while you're constantly wondering if they're telling you the truth."

"You don't even think I'm being honest now, do you?"

Deafening silence from Samantha.

Danny sounded deflated, but not altogether depressed. He knew the day was coming. And it came sooner rather than later"I guess that's that Sam. I tried, just now, in good faith to patch this up with you and all you do is call me a liar. If anyone lied, it was you and Tucker, not being honest with how much this upset you. What did you do instead. Radio silence. You sit in my face at lunch and don't say a word, like it's all fine. You held all this inside you and didn't tell me."

"You too Danny, but you did it longer, and you did it worse." Sam said, starting to sound tired and tired of Danny too.

"Fine Sam, if that's how you feel, you don't have to worry about calling me back. Don't worry about helping me fight ghosts. Oh right, you already did that. Don't do anything about Dash pushing me into lockers. Oh right, you don't." Danny reminded her.

"Fine, Danny, don't worry. I'll be normal again, running away from the danger. We risk our live and you can't even be honest. Goodbye."

"Good-" He didn't even finish before her heard the tone. He looked at the phone in disbelief. She hung up on him. He got up and transformed silently. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he couldn't stay in the empty house all night. The silence would leave him alone and naked to face his own thoughts. He would face the reality that he now had no friends. Dash was not quite there yet, but that meant nothing. He picked up his phone again He wasn't going to be able to sleep anyway. He wanted to fly away, but he couldn't, He had to be there for Dash.

He floated through the ceiling and ops center and entered the atmosphere He saw some clouds, storm clouds rolling in from the west. It was the shelf cloud. He flew towards it. He had not done it in a while, but he wanted to fly in the rain tonight. He wanted to feel the drops on his face, hear the boom of the thunder, and feel the tingling of nearby lightning.

He flew past Tucker's house. All the lights were out there. Then he flew over Sam's house about four blocks away. Her lights were out too. Finally, he flew past Dash's, one light on the upper level was on. He wanted to investigate it and probably catch Dash jacking off again, but not tonight. He didn't feel like it tonight. Maybe after this fucking hole was mended in his heart, but not tonight.

Danny continued flying into the storm. He started to feel the first few cool drops on his face, but he waited until he got into the middle of the storm cell. He came into the late summer downpour and hovered with it, as it moved across town. His hair, the ghostly white hair, started clinging to him and covered his forehead and eyes.

He didn't want to be seen this way. He could deny (to himself) that he was crying, bawling in this sort of rain. He could scream and shout and no one would hear him. And that's what he did that night, he cried and screamed into a dark raincloud.


	8. Eight

This is going to be a long one:

Friday, the eighth of September dawned bright and clear after the severe thunderstorms in Amity the night before. It was that crisp, cloudless sort of weather, and nothing portended calamity, or even anything out of the ordinary. Those days, the normal days, were the worst days. They could be just fine, or something would come out of the blue. Those were the unbearable days, where he was on constant alert. A 6:24 AM sunrise, an expected high of seventy-five degrees (none of that metric-ky, celsius shit, 'Merica fuck yeah lol), and a low of sixty. The birds were chir...You get it, it was a normal, nice end of the summer sort of day.

Dash woke as he always did with an early alarm at 5:45, the usual shit. He had a restless night, thinking about how Fenton and Phantom could have been the same person. But most of his thinking was done much earlier.

He had actually woken up in the middle of the night and stared at his ceiling, just thinking about the Fenton problem and the Phantom problem. Presciently, he thought of them as the same problem. The two problems seemed to become mixed together and indistinguishable. He came to peace with the fact that the ghost boy could have been lying to him by omission. Dash felt a strange feeling that started in his brain and spread all the way down to his gut. He couldn't put a word to it, but everyone else would have called it compassion, not pity, but commiseration.

He understood it: why Danny had to to lie. Danny used lies to defend himself, just like Dash. Danny's secret getting out would destroy him, just like Dash's. Danny's secret would have resulted in his parents actually trying to kill him, so did Dash's. Everything seemed to line up in their lives. Dash's was normal, more or less, and Danny's was supernatural. Dash knew that this was just a theory, but everything fit. And if the shoe fits, wear it. He empathized with someone for the first time in his life. It made him feel good inside to have understood someone so profoundly. What's more, if Dash's theory was indeed correct, he had someone who comprehended, and more essentially, appreciated what it meant to be doubled up. He got it.

He went back to sleep, or tried to, anxious for the day to come. He didn't know how to act anymore. He didn't know if he should confront Danny, or comfort him, or give him some space, or carry on the bullying as normal. It has also occurred to him, that if Danny was Phantom, that little thing he shouted at Foley and Manson (yes, he actually knew their names), would not have helped. In fact it probably stirred the fucking pot, but whatever. He didn't have time for it. If and only if Danny was the ghost, they had to know it. Shit! It was all falling into place. That was why the ghost boy was so upset.

"Hold up… Wait a fucking second," Dash sat straight up in his bed, "This can't be real Danny Fenton… Danny Phantom. Shit, that's so fucking obvious." Dash was astounded, "How the- How did no one figure that out before." He ran a nervous, trembling hand through his hair. "The eyes, the nose, the hair, the voice, the height, the build, the fact that I've never seen both of them in the same place at the same time. It all makes the sense. It all makes too much sense."

He looked over at the alarm clock on his nightstand. 1:01 AM. School started in about seven and a half hours. He would get there before that. Danny, his crush, and probably his hero, would be right in front of him. Again, he was presented with a dilemma. How does one act normal having figured all of this out? That was the question… the burning question. He lay flat on the bed again and tried (again) to go back to sleep. He had no clue how long it took him to actually get dreamland. (Wet Dreamland, more like.)

...

It felt like only fifteen minutes had passed before the alarm clock started to bother him. He cracked his eyes open as the muted light of the dawn colored his room. He instantly felt as if his underwear was entirely too tight. He shut his eyes again and pictured Fenton riding him. He got rid of his morning boner in the normal teenage boy way, staining, more accurately, drenching his t-shirt in the process. He had not cum since Tuesday evening, so needless to say that he was a bit pent up. After taking care of business, he removed the soaked shirt and sweaty underwear and threw them in the general direction of the clothes hamper. He was still vaguely horny and could go again, but he wouldn't.

Something told him not to, something told him to save all that tension up. He walked into his attached bathroom, naked, except for socks. He looked into the mirror as if his appearance would have changed in the last evening. Of course it hadn't. Maybe his hair was out of place. He removed his white OTC socks, scrunched them in his hand, lifted him towards his face and took a sniff. He took no particular offense to the odor.

" _Whatever,"_ Dash thought, " _These are good enough to wear again today."_

He reached out of the bathroom and threw the socks towards his bed. Neither landed in the intended place.

He hopped into the shower and decided to get extra, extra clean that morning. He had plenty of time, it was only a quarter after six. He took one of those Hollywood showers, you know, not worrying about how much water was going down the drain unused. The idea of shaving his pubes popped into his head and stayed there as he lathered his hair with some new shampoo. He looked down at that special part of his anatomy that dangled independently. He was semi-erect and, again, had enough time.

" _Why not?"_ He thought, " _It's cooler this way."_

Whether he meant that it made his junk more attractive or that it kept his junk at a more comfortable temperature it up to you. Whatever the case, he was going to be smooth today.

After he got done with his careful, yet skillful barbering down below, brushing his teeth, and lotioning up his muscles, he put on his normal ensemble, putting on a fresh pair of socks and leaving the well worn ones on the floor. It wasn't like his mother was in town to nag him about it. It's not like she really cared anyway. If she had been paying attention at all when she washed his clothes or cleaned his room, she'd have had many questions. ' _Why is this shirt so crusty?' or 'Is this vaseline in your underwear?' or 'Why_

He went downstairs. He didn't know what he was going to eat. He had stopped last night and gotten some milk. There was plenty of cereal in the house, but he didn't have an appetite (except for a certain someone; not like cannibalism though. He had kinks but that sure as fuck wasn't one of them). He was too nervous for food. He was too nervous to face Danny. He was heading down to the school early this morning. He didn't really want to go. He wanted to think some more. He wanted to contemplate what all of this meant. He had to go. He didn't need his parents getting the call that he wasn't in attendance.

* * *

Danny made the decision to go to school. He couldn't not be there, lest people in the school, especially Lancer get suspicious. His parents would not have minded, to be completely honest with you, provided he gave an excuse related to ghosts. Of course, that would not have been a complete lie.

But it was more than that… It would have been as if Sam had chased him out of his own domain, his own school. For the principle of it, he was not going to let her win.

He was sad. He was indignant.

But he was resolute to carry on.

She had terrorized, petrified him, even inadvertently, she still scarred and scared him to his very core. He still had to carry on, for himself at least. He had to keep calm and carry on for the sake of the town too. Just because he was hurting, just because he was dejected, he couldn't stop in his duty. He was like a soldier in the army; he had to carry the blood-stained banner, coated in his own. He took the beating so that the town could be saved. He hated how theological it sounded, but it was true. He was the savior, their savior, but he would never lord over the people.

He was truly alone now. Not so much king of the hill, as it was hermit on the mountain. No friends, no allies. His peers in school were ignorant. His teachers were indifferent, almost to a malicious, belligerent level. The villains actively sought his destruction, as did his parents (though they would want to perform a vivisection). His friends were now disengaged. The only person he could look to was Dash, who doubled as bully during the school day and confidant after dismissal. He didn't know if he could take the bullying today. His emotions were so raw, and he didn't trust himself to have the nerve to not snap when Dash touched him. He did not even know which way he would snap: anger or woe.

He knew that all this double stuff would have to come to an end sooner rather than later. He just hoped that Dash wouldn't freak out too badly. He knew that he would if he were in the situation. It would look like another lie, just like it had to his friends. For some reason he had a feeling that Dash wouldn't do anything. Dash wouldn't try to beat him so much, but there was no telling for sure.

He had no rational reasoning to back that up. Matters of attraction, whether that be friendship or something deeper seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Danny felt that deep down Dash would end up being his support system, his succor (and maybe his sucker).

He had not slept at all that night. He had spent his time drifting in the clouds, crying. He didn't want to think about it anymore. Sam and Tucker hated him now, and there was no changing that. Now, he was being made to move forward. He knew that it would be hard, but he had to keep going. Again, for the sake of the town. As much as he wanted to quit and be normal, he knew that his town would be destroyed.

Life had always been hard for him. It would just be getting a bit harder.

He flew down an alley a few blocks away from the school. This one was secure for him, no one was ever back there and there were no cameras to catch him. He transformed back to Danny Fenton. His bookbag appeared with him as he walked out onto the sidewalk. He looked down at his wrist. It was just seven o'clock.

It was 7:07 when he got to Casper High and crossed the threshold. He had to fight the urge to turn around and leave. But he would not would feel like he was allowing Sam to chase him from his own school. His defiance of adversity made him stay. Some people would call it courageous. Danny didn't see it that way. He was doing what he had to do, what he had always done.

Live.

He was dead, but he was going to live.

* * *

It was 8:25 and the bell rang. They had only five minutes to get to homeroom. Both of them were dreading it. They wished that they didn't have to see each other. But they would be focused focused on each other. Danny had gone to his locker and been able to change his books unmolested.

Unbothered. That's a better word.

He sat down in front of Dash, ready for a quiet onslaught of abuse. He had to admit that he liked the jibing, the cut and thrust of their current relationship. Mind you he wanted something closer, where he felt the thrusting more closely. If Dash didn't have anything to say today it would take away his security blanket. If Dash were to say something, anything to him, it would prove that something was still normal. Something was still right with the world.

After and hour and a half of English, Dash had not said a word. He wasn't breathing down Danny's neck. He wasn't showing any signs of aggression, The peace of mind made Danny jittery. A normal victim would be glad of a respite like this, suspicious, but relieved. Danny wasn't. This made him hyper alert. It made him wonder what was going on?

" _Is Dash getting ideas? Is he mad at me? Did Dash actually manage to do what the rest of the town couldn't, and finally put all the dots together? If he did, is he gonna tell?"_ Danny's thoughts were flying all over the place, " _No he couldn't. I have too much dirt on him."_

Besides, Danny did not think he could blackmail Dash. Firstly because Danny's life was already shattered and he didn't have it in him, he didn't have the capacity to ruin another. He simply couldn't muster the antagonism to do it; he was always the good guy. Secondly, he liked Dash too much to hurt him. He hated he anguish that Dash had gone through before. He hated the vague dread that Dash went through now. He hated how Dash saw no future.

But who was he kidding… what would his future be? The future was no longer a friendly abstract. The whole, no aging, no dying thing ruined him, It stole his drive from him. He didn't know what his accomplishments would mean. And now with his parents perpetually absent, and being anathema to those two who used to be his friends, he had no one. He was groping in the dark for something to cling onto. The only tangible, reliable thing in his whole world was Dashiel Baxter.

That was what was so scary about this beautiful September day. The only person who he could depend on was not speaking to him or anyone. He was not acknowledging his existence. It shocked him to his core and made everything that much more uncertain. Danny sure as hell wasn't gonna let this slip away. The problem is that he did not know how to grab on.

English ended and nothing was said. So did chemistry, and geometry.

Nothing from Dash at lunch either.

But that didn't mean that lunch was uneventful. Oh no, Danny's not in for a good time yet. He sat down at his usual place, with his usual cheeseburgers with french fries (and too much ketchup on the side). He opted for a coke today, a break from the tradition of orange soda. As he sat there eating unfocused on the food, he knew that he was risking his emotions, still raw from the backstab the night before. He had promised himself that he would not cry in front of them. He would not lose face.

He would not allow them the satisfaction of knowing that they broke him. When they had finally sat down, they took their normal seats, Tucker to his left and Sam in front of him. He was surrounded, because the his stool at the cafeteria table was tucked in the far corner out of sight, None of the teachers could see this corner unless they made the effort to come to the back of the place. No teachers ever made such an effort. It was also a blindspot for the cameras.

The two of them, the unexpected lovebirds, were staring at each other. Staring daggers into each other, not even glancing in his direction. It was as if nothing was there.

His gut told him to leave, but he did not want to capitulate.

" _Danny, just get up and walk away from this. This can't go well."_ Danny's intellect told him. Well, he should have listened to one of them before the words started flying between the trio.

"Sam," Tucker started, now only "It looks like he still wants to try." Danny's presence was reduced to a pronoun. "Maybe we should let him try to explain himself. I mean I don't think there's anything he can say to convince me he's not a terrible liar."

"He can talk till the cows come home, but it's not like he'll be saying anything." Sam said.

Danny said in his head, " _Why wait till the cows come home, when I have one sitting in front of me."_ He thought better of vocalizing it.

"No, me neither. He knows that he's been caught out. There's nothing more to say. The house of cards has totally collapsed on him. Silence is the only response he can have."

"You know what's funny, Tucker?" Sam asked using a fake lightness in her voice..

"What?"

"He lied to us, but we're the ones with his secret. I mean come on. We have two big, juicy secrets on this kid and all the deets. What does he have on us? Hmmm? That we're boyfriend and girlfriend sleeping together. Yet he thinks that out of the goodness of our hearts we won't say anything,"

"Strange, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," she said sarcastically, "I hope that no one ever overhears us talking about his secrets. "

"It would be a shame if he got exposed." Tucker replied, "A real shame." This was some sadistic shit, you know that stab and twist shit.

"What do you want?" Danny asked bitterly. Knowing now that the trio was about to permanently part company. "Why don't you just leave me the fuck alone if you hate me so much?"

"Did you hear that, Tucker?" Sam cupped her hand to her ear.

"What?" Tucker replied, "I didn't hear anything."

"The sound of a ghost telling us to leave it alone," Danny was now an 'it' in Sam's estimation, "Maybe if it wasn't haunting our usual spot, and stalking us, we wouldn't have talk about it."

"Well, I ain't moving." Danny said. Holding its nerve. "I got here first and if you don't like me here, you two can sit someplace, anyplace else. Since you hate me so much just leave me alone to sit in my corner."

"So, I guess we can keep talking about it." Sam said. "It still wants to haunt us in our own spot. It still wants to have a conversation. Maybe if I say it more slowly you'll get it: WE DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU, DANNY BECAUSE YOU'RE A MISERABLE, DRAMATIC LIAR"

"The funny thing is," Danny started, chuckling bitterly, removing the knife from his back as it were, "I would usually just think and say to myself that you're acting like this because you're on your period, Sam. But considering the both of you smell like sex, it can't be that. Unless, the both of you are nastier than I thought. Are you?"

No answer.

He looked at Tucker, "Okay, it's reassuring to know that you're not fucking her while she's bleeding." Danny huffed, "But that makes this all the more complicated, Sam. I don't know if you were always a bitch and I didn't see it. Or, maybe you were hiding it and the mask slipped? Or is this a recent development? I mean I haven't been around you much lately. Whatever the case is- and I say this as someone who _was_ your friend at one point- it doesn't suit you. I know that you two weren't expecting to find that stuff out about me. I ain't apologizing since it was none of your business. It had nothing to do with our relationship as friends or as ghost fighters. I don't know what your damage is. I don't know why the hell you guys are so angry. And after that little performance, I don't know what I think. I don't know what this vicious stuff is about, but it's about more than me. Why don't the both of you just chill the fuck out?!"

Tucker exhaled quietly, and swiftly turned and grabbed the front of Danny's shirt, snatching it and crumpling it in his hand. He almost ripped the material. Tucker leaned in and forced Danny to the wall. "Why don't you just fuck off?!" Tucker screamed, but not loud enough for anyone to notice in a noisy lunchroom. Then he shoved Danny to the floor. To add insult to injury, Tucker slid the tray over the edge of the table. The tray flipped, as if by magic, in midair. The tray itself came to rest a few inches away from Danny's body sparing him a bump to the head.

The contents of the tray, however landed squarely over the ghost boy before he had a chance to get up. He got ketchup on the upper part of his shirt and in his hair. The burger pelted him in the face, as the the fries. Some of them went down his tee shirt. And for the piece de resistance. The can of orange soda, still about ninety percent full, emptied its contents all over him.

The result: he was dripping wet and smelled like a fast food joint. (That might be an aphrodisiac for Dash for all we know). Tucker glanced down to look at the ghost boy, but he was gone.

…

Danny had gotten up and walked through the entire length of the lunchroom. He was mortified, but he couldn't risk someone seeing him turn intangible. He even had to walk past the popular kids' table. He hoped to God that Dash wasn't seated there to see him walk past. Danny had forgotten that he stopped believing in God a long time ago. The deity he didn't believe in didn't deliver. During his swift walk to the bathroom, the only person he made physical contact with… You guessed it: Dash Baxter.

It was not a long sort of contact. They bumped elbows as Danny walked out of the caf and as Dash walked in. Dash looked down at him, and seeing the mess that coated him turned around to follow him.

Danny kept walking as the nearest restroom was still more than 300 feet away.

"Hey Fenton!" Dash called out starting to follow. His voice wasn't aggressive, but concerned "Fenton, stop!"

"Leave me alone, Dash." Danny said, still leaving a trail of orange soda drops. "I'm really not in the mood for this today."

"Danny," Dash heard the word come out of his mouth. It was authoritative, but caring. It was unexplainably pleasant sounding to him. The two simple syllables made him feel warm inside. He again could not name this feeling, but whatever it was, he liked it. He found himself mouthing the word again as he closed the distance between him and the black haired boy. "Danny, please stop."

Danny obeyed almost instinctively. Dash had never asked him to do anything politely. If he had, Danny would slavishly follow his every command. Danny turned around, "What do you want?" Danny's voice was cracking. His hair obscured his eyes, and Danny's face was wet anyway but Dash thought he saw a tear running down his face.

Dash clenched his fists as he thought of pummeling whoever he had to, If you touched a hair on Danny's head, you had to die.

"Who did this to you?" Dash asked, gritting his teeth.

Danny turned around and ran away, sobbing loudly. Dash did not follow him. He did not know what to say. He didn't know what to do.

* * *

Dash got to Mount Amity that afternoon feeling nervous. He looked out into the blue yonder, chewing on some minty gum. He usually used gum to distract from his thoughts. It wasn't working today. Repeat: was NOT working.

He knew that Danny was in a state of shock and sadness, and he knew that because Phantom and Fenton were the same person that the ghost boy wouldn't be able to hide it. Not even for a second. Dash's heart was messing with him. He just wanted to grab him, hug him, and make all the pain go away. He didn't know if he had the power to do it. Fuck it, he was going to try and he was going to try hard. It was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done. Harder than a State Football championship, harder than school, even harder than living in that hell house with his parents.

He hoped that Danny would show up. He would have understood if he didn't. If Danny didn't show up, Dash wouldn't hesitate to drive down this mountain and go straight to Fenton Works.

He didn't have to, as he saw a familiar figure flying towards him. Dash took a deep breath. This was going to be make or break. He saw the frown on the ghost boy's face

"Hey," Dash said, as the ghost landed beside him. "How's it going?"

"Good." Danny said, lying. "I'm fine. And you?" He sounded morose.

"Hmmm." Dash sounded unconvinced,

"What?"

"You seem a bit down." Dash said, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Danny couldn't even convince himself that he sounded well. "I ask how are you."

"I'm not fine," Dash said, "I have a bit of a problem. Something I want to, need to know. And I don't know how to find out."

"What is it?" The ghost boy asked.

"All this time," Dash started, "I've wonder about-"

"About what?"

"About you," Dash went on, "I mean you're not fine right now and… and I hate seeing you this way man. When you're down it brings me down."

"I'm sorry, I am a little down, but you don't have to worry about it, really." Danny said, "I'm fine."

"I wonder about you. I worry about you. I find myself thinking about you all the time," Dash replied, it even scared him how sincere he was, "You're a hero. You're an icon. And if you're not happy it concerns me. I… I don't want someone I care about being upset like this. I- I'm sorry… I'm not usually all mushy like this, but I saw you and Danny Fenton both upset today and I don't like it."

"Well, don't worry about me being upset."

"I can't not worry, Danny," Dash said. "Danny Phantom being upset upsets me. Danny Fenton being upset upsets me. Seeing the both of you upset is almost unbearable."

"Danny," Danny said his name quietly, "You just called me Danny. How did you know my name was Danny?"

"When someone called you Inviso-Bill on the news, you yelled back that your name was Danny Phantom. I remembered that last night. I think about you, Danny Phantom. I think about the town's Savior. Everyone knows of you, but no one _knows_ you."

"Yes," Danny said, "And everyone in town knows that you're Dash Baxter, football star. Heartthrob."

"This isn't about me anymore, Danny. This is about you. You trying to exist in this crazy place. You helping out our little town, saving us from ghost attacks every twenty minutes. That's all most people know, the ghost boy, But, you're not just a ghost hero dude. I know that's not what most people think of you, but that's what I think you are. I know that before all of this you existed like anyone else. Alive and happy I hope. You had a life and friends," Dash said, trying not to crack this too inartfully. "I'm sorry. I don't usually talk this much, but while you're up here talking to me, you're still alive. You had friends and a life. And after death, I guess, I don't want you to lose that."

Danny took a deep breath, almost a sniffle, trying not to cry. He wondered how Dash knew so much. He wondered when Dash started to know him so well. He wondered why he didn't just transform, "I did and now I don't. Things don't always go well. I know that all too personally."

"I know that. For some reason, the things I want in life, I can't have them. I want to be me, but I can't. I want to be known for something more than just being a quarterback, but I can't. I want to date the cutest boy in the whole world, but I don't know if it's possible. ANd dammit I'm going to find out."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't complain. I have a sense of freedom that you don't. I can just disappear if I want to. I can go anyplace in the world in a heartbeat. I can-"

"No, I don't think you can. You're tied to this town more than I am. You're its hero. You can't just leave. No, you're not free. Both of us have reputations that put us in boxes. You and me both been buried by our renown."

"Renown? Fancy word, Dash. You could be known for other things if you wanted to." Danny tried to change the subject. "You could be a poet if you wanted."

"You kidding me? I looked at a dictionary and a thesaurus to prepare for this whole conversation. I wanted to say everything right, but don't you try and chase me away from my point. You're down and I want to know why. I… uh- I think of you as a friend, my only real one. I know it's only been like a week, like a school week but you know more about me than all those other assholes at school put together. You know what I love and hate, what I fear, who I want. I…" Dash trailed off, his brain wasn't made for this emotional shit.

"I'm flattered you think about me that way. I have to confess that I am in need of a friend right about now. That's why I'm so down, Dash. The things, the people, the ideas I used to be able to depend on, they all kinda disappeared. Now I'm alone except for you, Dash. All I wanted to do was be normal." Danny started crying freely for the third time in the last twenty-four hours "I never wanted all of this hero shit. I never wanted to have to defend this town everyday." Danny started yelling at nobody in particular, looking down towards the town "I'm so fucking sick and tired of all you phony assholes wanting everything from me all the time. Having to play happy when inside I'm so fucking miserable!"

Dash realized that the hero needed a hero. If not a hero, he at least needed some support. SO, Dash did something he had never done before. He reached over and hugged the smaller one. The ghost reciprocated and wrapped his arms around the larger frame. He nuzzled into Dash's chest inhaling the scent of the leather jacket, the the gentle scent of fabric softener in Dash's shirt, and the last scent of all the, l'essence of Dash. Dash felt affection for the teen he held close to him. He wanted Danny to feel safe again.

"I don't even remember the last time I was happy. I don't remember what happiness feels like," The ghost was still sobbing taking gasps between his words. "I don't remember what normal is."

"I want you to be happy, Danny, I really do. I don't think we're quite there yet." Dash did not want to push him, but he really wanted to get him to be himself, not the ghost, but the one he liked. "Danny," Dash grabbed him gently by the chin and now they looked each other in the eye. Dash wanted to see the blue eyes, not the green, "Danny, I know that this might be hard, but..."

"What?"

"I know more about you than most people have figured out."

"I know."

"I know that all of those tears aren't about Danny Phantom. In fact most of them aren't."

"Dash, what are you saying?" Danny felt dread.

"Those aren't Danny Phantom's tears, they're Danny Fenton's. I'm not hugging a ghost I'm hugging the person I… the person I've wanted to hug for too long now. I'm hugging the only person who can put up with me. I don't just see the ghost boy. I see the kid who sits in front of me in English, the kid I can't go a minute without thinking about. I'm hugging Danny Fenton." Dash finally let the words out. He felt the embrace tighten, as Danny clung onto him for security. He cried, those these most recent tears were relief, joy. Dash was there for him. He didn't want to let go, but he knew he would have to.

"Dash, how-" Danny relinquished him and felt naked without that firm, muscly warmth surrounding him, "How did you know?"

"Danny Fenton was crying a couple of hours ago and now you're crying. He's upset, you're upset. You are both the same height, same weight, same voice, same hairstyle, same face. Same name! It's not all some huge coincidence. Danny, why don't you show me who you really are?" Dash hoped he put it right. He didn't want the boy to fly away. "Please, I promise, your secret is safe with me. My secret has been safe with you and I promise I won't tell anyone."

Danny was wide eyed. Dash was the last person in the world he would have expected to put it together. Not that Dash was dumb, Danny would not have liked anyone who was dumb. But wouldn't Dash have had a lot more to think about? Football? Staying in the closet?

" _Why does he bother to think about me? Why does he care so much?"_ Danny thought.

Dash took a knee and grabbed Danny's still gloved hand as if he was proposing. He was putting forth his case, almost grovelling. Dash didn't mind grovelling to Danny. "Please, I don't usually beg like this, but I want to be your friend. I want to know what it's like to have a friend. I want to be Danny Fenton's friend. I don't want him to be all alone, juggling being a teenager and being the town's hero. I know that it was Foley who did that to you. I'll give you whatever you want, even if you want me to leave you alone forever, whatever. I just can't fucking watch you cry anymore. It makes me mad. When you're sad I just want to find whatever it is and make it stop. I-"

"Dash?"

"Yes," Dash looked up, full of hope

"How did you figure this all out?"

"The boy I like was upset and- I can't watch it. I can't take it anymore. When they told me that it was Foley, I wanted to beat his stupid face in. Make those glasses a permanent feature." Dash said, "I knew that if Foley did that and Manson wasn't doing anything about it, you must be done. And it's my fault cuz I shouldn't have done that yesterday. And since they hate me, they hate you cuz you were seen with me. It was dumb of me- and I figured that since I killed your other friendships, I should offer myself up."

"Dash-"

Dash couldn't stop talking, he was nervous the kid he bullied everyday was the same kid who made him hard. was the same kid who probably saved his life multiple times in the past. His speech became fast, uncogent, and almost too slurred to understand. Danny hung onto every syllable as Dash continued to talk, "I know I ain't much and I'm sorry for all the shit I put you through. But I can change. I can keep my hands to myself..."

"Dash-"

"...and I know I can do better. I can be ten times the friend that they were. And I know that you already said that you like dudes, but you might not like me. And I'm sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable. I mean just cuz you like guys doesn't mean that you have to like me, but I really really hope you do since you're so cool to be around..."

"Dash-"

"...And I swear that I'll do anything that I have to do to protect you from whoever tries to hurt you. Even if we don't end up together, I know that I can be your friend I swear if anyone touches a hair on your fucking head, I'll kill them. And I fucking mean it..." (And Dash did mean it)

"Dash-"

"I know that you might not trust me, but I swear I'll do whatever I have to do to earn it. ANYTHING! "

"Dash, get up." Danny requested.

Dash did as he was told and rose back to his feet. Danny took a deep breath and was instantly bathed in light. Dash could not hide his astonishment at the brilliance of the light. The light was bright but didn't blind him. Danny disappeared for a moment as rings of light divided and went up and down, respectively. The light faded away and he was standing before Dash. Danny Fenton, black hair, blue eyes, white shirt, and blue jeans. What was strange was that Danny was glowing. His skin was glistening and his eyes were shimmering. Maybe it was just the sunlight, but Dash could have eaten Danny up right then

"It's not your fault," Danny said walking towards Dash. "I have a lot of explaining to do. Lots to tell you about."

"Danny, can I ask you something? The thing that I've been wondering for the longest."

Danny took a couple more steps towards Dash. "Yes, Dash."

"For all this time I've been watching you from afar, wondering, hoping, praying. I-" For the second time that day, Dash ran a nervous hand through his hair, "I've been usually bullying as an excuse to see you and to touch you. Danny, I gotta know. Do you like me?"

Danny closed the distance and smiled, "Yes. I like you a lot."

Dash wanted to reach down and kissed him, but something made him stop. "Then, we should do something about it. You wanna go on a date with me? Uh… tomorrow?" Dash hated how awkward it sounded, but he didn't know any other way to talk to Danny. He had no tricks. Danny wasn't some hump-n-dump bitch. He wanted to be with Danny. He wanted to woo him.

"YES!" Danny said a little too loud, showing his teenage excitement, He composed himself. "So long as it isn't in this town." Danny said, trembling a bit with excitement.

"Damn straight," Dash said. (Weird, considering that he just made a date with another boy :) "And definitely not in that shithole, Elmerton"

"We have to go over to York, maybe even Bedford County."

"I'd go to Bangkok for you." Dash smiled, quite pleased with his cheesy joke.

Danny chuckled.

"So, like, do I have a boyfriend now?" Dash asked.

"I think you do."

"Umm… what now?" Yup, it was official. They were in a relationship and the beginning of any relationship was awkward. Dash and Danny seemed to be okay with this kind of awkwardness. They knew that it would fade.

"Uhhh, drive me home?"Danny asked, trying to find a boyfriend-ish thing to ask for. He was emotionally and physically exhausted after the longest day of his life. At least, mercifully, it was Friday.

"Sure."

* * *

Feel free to leave me a review or PM me


	9. Nine

Danny: Hey, Dash.

Dash: hey wats up

Danny: nothing much, just need 2 ax u sumthing

Dash: shoot

Danny: i no we sed we wud go on a date ltr but can u come over 2day? We need 2 tlk about ghost stuff & let u know how it worx

Dash: wen u want me over?

Danny: 9 o'cock, this is gonna take all day, wear sumthing comfy

Dash: omg when?

Danny: lol 9 o ' k

Dash: KKK

Danny: wait, watttt? :0 lmfao

Dash: i meant kk lol, c u soon ;)

* * *

Dash pulled up to Fenton Works at about a quarter to nine and parked where that stupid RV was usually parked. He had to work up the nerve to go inside that place. It wasn't that he was scared of the building. At least its form did not intimidate him. It was what this building represented. It was Danny's house. It was Danny's home and they always said that 'home is where the heart is'. Being allowed in was really imposing and he didn't want to fuck up. He couldn't fuck up. September eighth went well, he wanted the ninth to go just as smoothly. He called it the 'MAP' strategy: Minimal Awkwardness Possible.

He did follow Danny's advice to wear comfy clothes fulfil the goal, or at least help in the effort. What he wore was some black track pants and gray wife beater. He didn't realize that he was wearing the Phantom colors. His hair was disheveled and he hoped Danny wouldn't mind. After about ten minutes of swearing to himself in the car and telling himself to man up, he got out of the car and walked up the block. He walked up the steps of the renovated brownstone, involuntarily curling his nose in disgust if that stupid neon sign. When he looked up, completely up, he realized just how imposing the building was with that damn spacey hovercraft thing on the top. That didn't make him nervous so much as what Danny was going to tell him. What the hell did Danny want to tell him that would take all day long. Dash was ready to learn, but he hoped that the facts weren't going to be too hard to hear.

He didn't want to hear about how and why Danny died, but he knew it would be inevitable. He steeled himself. He was okay when he had no clue that the two Dannys were one. But now, now that he had deepening feelings for the ghost boy, anything gruesome would repulse him. He didn't know that he was so sensitive. Was it always in him? Was Danny making it come out? Or was this a new development? He didn't know the answer. He didn't know if he wanted to know.

He rang the doorbell and heard the buzzing on his end. He waited, chomping on his minty gum nervously. His toes were squeezing and he quickly ran his hand through his hair.

Danny heard the doorbell and stopped his nervous fiddling with his shorts. They were black, athletic and stopped just above the knee. Let's also say, for the sake of clarity, that they were more form-fitting than loose, closer to leggings tham sweatpants. The rest of the way down was just his legs, smooth as could be, then some black socks, that ended mid-calf. No shoes. He wore an undershirt this time, not white with the red dot, but gray. They didn't know that they were clashing. Neither of them were the type to notice or care. And if they did, they'd think it was cool. That definitely was not in the forefront of Danny's mind. It was that winky face he sent on his last message. He couldn't get it out of his head. Only Dash could make him panic like this, but at least Dash was cool.

Dash was already better than Sam and Tucker in his estimation, because he could at least be bothered to ring the fucking doorbell. Dash was the one who could have walked in on him any time, but he was actually the one courteous enough to fucking ask permission to enter his home.

Danny took a deep breath, dismissing those pessimistic and nervous thoughts. Then he opened the door. Danny bit his lower lip and blushed inadvertently as his eyes wandered up and down Dash's sculpted physique. Danny leaned to the right and stood against the door frame, now unashamedly scoping him out.

" _Those fucking arms. No wonder that fucking hug felt so good. That chest and those fucking abs. Run my tongue up and down that washboard,"_ And then Danny got down to his manhood (the trouser snake). Oh did I forget to mention that Dash wasn't wearing any underwear that day. Dash wanted to be comfy as was his commission and things needed to breathe. It swung free and bulged where it wanted. (All the dudes reading this know what I'm talking about.) Anyway back to Danny's thoughts. " _Is that thing legal?! You could uproot a tree with that thing."_

Okay, you get the picture. Danny would have kneeled right then and there if not for the social implications of a teenage boy sucking dick in the street. It wasn't San Francisco or New York after all.

Dash's thoughts were like this… " _He's not as scrawny as I thought. That's muscle, pure muscle, he's like a dancer, a kick boxer."_ Dash saw that Danny was having a physiological response to his own presence. Danny's somewhat rapidly emerging tumescence was not hidden my the shorts, because Danny too decided not to have that extra layer. The both of them now stood with semis, fixated on the other's body. They knew that they could both get used to looking at each other. " _Holy fucking shit,"_ Dash thought _, "What the fuck is he feeding that thing? How good would it feel to get fucked by that thing? Did you just want to bottom for Danny. For that thing, that fucking fire hydrant, fuck yes, ride that thing all day long."_

Neither of them knew how long they stood there staring at each other, nor did they care. There was no one to see them starting at each other.

"Uh, hi." Danny broke away to look into Dash's blue eyes, it was a darker blue than his.

"Hi, I'm here." Dash scratched the back of his neck.

"I see." Danny looked down at Dash's feet, kinda liking his feet, "Uh... come in" Danny vacated the area and allowed enough room for Dash to cross the threshold. Dash looked all around when he walked in and marvelled at how much space he had in the home. Dash used his feet to shimmy his shoes off. The place was so immaculate that he didn't want to bring any germs into it.

"You don't have to do that." Danny insisted trying to be hospitable. He meant it too, Sam and Tucker never did.

"No, this place is just so clean.I don't want to ruin it. Do you have someone come in and clean or something?" Dash asked.

"No, I did it myself. It's no big deal. My room's not so organized trust me, well you'll see… Anyway you hungry? You want something to eat?"

"No, you don't have to-"

"It's not a bother really, when your parents are constantly out of town or gone for days, weeks at a time trying to capture some ghost, which just turned out to be some swamp gas. If you don't learn how to cook, you end up starving to death. And I do like to cook."

"I know, trust me I do. My parents might not be out chasing swamp gas, but they're always someplace out east. With my father's job, he's out there selling some whatever he sells. My mother's out there to buy some shit that she'll never use, never wear, and won't remember."

"I know. I like the freedom though."

"Me too," Dash said, "No need to worry about anything in the house. You can walk around naked for all you care."

"Who says that I don't?" Danny asked, smirking.

Dash's cock twitched. Danny noticed and had to rip his eyes away from it.

"So again, do you want anything to eat? Some pancakes maybe? An omelette?"

"You don't have to, really."

"Blueberry pancakes?"

" _My favorite,"_ the quarterback said to himself.

"Fine," Dash said, trying to play it cool and failing "I'll have some blueberry pancakes."

"Good, cuz we're gonna be here all day doing some strenuous stuff and I don't need you passing out on me." Danny said, before bounding into the kitchen. This showed Danny's ass to full advantage. It, like the rest of his muscles, was toned. It was firm, manageable, and most of all the perfect size for Dash's hands. Fuck, they'd fit into his hands perfectly.

" _Good Lord, look at that ass, fuck the pancakes, I'd eat that for breakfast. I wonder if he's a moaner. Dirty talker, maybe?"_

Dash's thoughts grew more explicit as he pictured doing dirty, dirty things to Fenton, but that would have to wait. Dash followed Danny into the kitchen where the smell of bacon overwhelmed him. Dash looked over towards the range and saw looked through the glass door of the oven.

" _How did he know I liked my bacon on the softer side?"_ Dash asked internally, "You had this all ready, huh?"

"I… uh… never did this dating thing before… and uh- I thought that since I let you in, not that I mind, but I had to be hospitable.

"Thank you, Danny. That was really nice of you." Dash said, appreciative as his stomach growled. "I am hungry."  
Something about the way Dash said that last sentence made Danny excited, almost giddy. Danny motioned for him to sit down at the table. Ironically, Dash heard his father in his head.

" _If you find a bitch who will clean and cook for you, grab on tight and hang on for dear life, boy."_

Danny wasn't a bitch, far from it, but his father's words rang true. Dash had found a keeper and he wasn't letting this one go. He didn't really know what it meant not to let one of them go, but he sure as hell wasn't going to allow that to happen to Fenton, not his Fenton, fuck that.

* * *

After breakfast, Danny led him down to the basement and sat Dash down in front of the portal. Dash sat uncomfortably in the chair. This lab was a bit creepy, like a crappy porno set. Not that Dash knew too much about that. He looked at the massive door with black and yellow caution stripes. He watched as Danny worked with some knobs and levers. Then he heard a 'ding'. All of a sudden the doors parted to the left and right and Dash was met with an unfamiliar image: it was a sickly green swirling. He saw what we know to be the Ghost Zone, but Danny had to explain it.

"Dash, this is the Ghost Zone." Danny started, "This is where all those ghost come from. Most of them are good to be honest, they do nothing when they come out into the material world. Those are the ghosts that I don't mess with. Those are the types of ghosts my parents seem to like to go after."

"What's the percentage of good ghosts to bad?"

"Ninety-seven percent of them are good and decent, you know just like living people. The other three percent are bad in varying degrees. Some are just a nuisance, you know disorderly and loud, like the box ghost. Some are just mischievous, kleptomaniacs and the sort. And the one percent of the one percent are the evil one. The ones set on conquering the world, enslaving humanity, destroying Western Civilization, you know the usual."

"The usual?"

"Well, you notice when the sky will turn green or orange?"

"Oh, shit! That's from you fighting ghosts?!" Dash's surprise was amusing, "That makes more sense than the dumb stuff I thought about that before."

"Well, yeah." Danny chuckled, " What did you think it was?"

"Axiom Labs poisoning us or at least doing some mass experimentation on the people here seeing if their new chemical is safe or not. Most kids in the school think that's what the random green skies are about." Dash said with a straight face. He realized how stupid that sounded and started to chuckle. "Then again most of the people in our high school can't put together how Fenton and Phantom are the same person."

"Exactly."

"How did you, you know, go ghost?" Dash had not realized he just said the magic catchphrase.

"Well, in the beginning, my parents were tinkering with this thing. It wouldn't work at all. They had given up completely. Sam, Tucker and I came downstairs and she dared me to go into it after she did some more messing with the dials. Theoretically it can be done again because we have a picture of how exactly the dials were. We still did not know what the portal would do. Being a stupid teenager, I put on a jumpsuit, and went into the portal. Sam dared me to."

"So let me get it straight. You walked into the green swirly stuff?"

"No, the portal was off and I basically walked into a hole into this wall. My parents being the interesting people they were were so focused on trying to fix it from the outside that they forgot that they put on 'on' button in the damn thing. It was so dark in there that I was groping on the walls so that I wouldn't trip and I pushed it inadvertently. And then all the electricity that this thing used, basically enough to power the town twice, electrocuted me."

"Ouch." Dash cringed at that news. It was something that he couldn't imagine going through. His thoughts then turned, briefly though, to Sam who compelled him into that thing. He came up with a new moniker for her in his rage. " _Fucking gothcunt making him go into that thing."_

"Ouch indeed. So I died, but because the thing was a ghost portal, I kinda got some ghost life. I came back to life but if you look at my cells under a microscope it ain't just human DNA anymore. I have some ghost DNA. With two sets of DNA. Two identities, you get it."

"So, why fight ghosts? I mean you could have lived a calm life with these advantages. I mean after all that shit I did, I don't know why you didn't just kick my ass across the town. Punt me across Amity like the punk I was."

"Well, fighting ghosts was kind of inevitable. I knew I was the only one capable of doing it. I couldn't stand to see the town being terrorized by ghouls everyday. The cops wouldn't know what to do. The state troopers would be just as useless. And the feds would just spend a lot of time and money doing stuff that don't work. My folks had already taught me how to fight, capture, and destroy ghosts, so I had to do it. And I wasn't ever going to kick your ass, I liked you too much."

"But the shit I put you through was crazy."

"I fight ghosts every night, what you did was nothing. Nothing at all."

"But you coulda-"

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda… let me just put it like this. If I had done anything differently, that would imperil the situation we're in now. I might not have just fed you breakfast. After that shit yesterday with them, if I didn't have you, I would have flown away and never come back."

"And broken my heart in the process," Dash said reflexively, looking down at the lab floor. He came back to reality, "Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to make it so heavy."

"Don't worry, we we're already talking about death," Danny reminded, with a wry chortle.

"So, dark humor is your thing, huh?" Dash asked, not put off, but curious. "You just don't hear it that much."

"With the gruesome shit I've seen, you have to learn to laugh at it." Danny replied in earnest. "If I didn't laugh at it then it wouldn't drive me crazy. I've been at this too long not to find the humor in it."

"How long?"

"Three years," Danny said, "Oh shit, three years today."

"Happy Deathday!" Dash tried his (large) hand at the dark humor. It bombed like Hiroshima. He looked at his boyfriend. He was not amused, but not bothered or offended. Dash asked sheepishly, "No?"

"No."

* * *

They went to the top floor and then higher still into the ops center. Dash was impressed with the technology he saw. No wonder Fenton was so smart. He looked at the tech and knew that his folks had built it. Two smarts usually can't make a retard. That's how Dash felt about it. Then Dash looked up and saw the panoramic windows. The town was beautiful, but he looked towards Danny as the sunlight caught his blue eyes and Dash forgot about the town. Those buildings, those people out and about, that became completely irrelevant. They, the people, the town, became nothing, no one.

Danny looked over and saw that Dash was staring at him with a goofy look on his face. Pure adoration rather than lust. He wanted to bask in the attention, but there was more to tell Dash. "I have to show you up here because you have to see what this place id about. This operations center tracks the ghost activity in Amity County, in the whole state, America, the whole continent in real time. All the way from the far reaches of Nunavut down to the Panama Canal. It allows me to…" Danny pushed a couple of button and within two seconds the room got dark Suddenly, a wall of metal covered all the windows and on the far wall, a projection surface descended. The projector turned on without delay and a gray outline (military looking shit) on Amity County surrounded by the blacked out neighboring counties. There were red dots where, Dash assumed, the recent attacks took place. May of them were focused over Amity Park.

"As you can see we're in a hotspot." Danny said, "And I can focus on the state." And Danny did it. "I can focus on America, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, wherever."

Danny was focused on the United States of America and Dash noticed some blue dots some place in the northern half of Montana, approaching the Canadian border.

"What are the blue dots?"

"My family."

"What, you're tracking them?"

"No, they're tracking themselves. I don't think Jazz is into it. I think she's feigning it to get some psychological research. Whatever the case, they're still trying to find something. They were originally at a conference in Duluth, but there must be something going on out there."

"So why did you want to show me this?"

"I needed you to understand the scope of the challenge."

"Fair enough. Uh, I gotta another question."

"Shoot."

"What are the hotspots in America for ghosts? Amity for sure, but where else?"

Danny brought up the map of the United States again. "Well, like you said here in Amity Park. Then there's Swedesboro, New Jersey; Garden City, Kansas; Yemassee, South Carolina; Beulah, North Dakota and Bellingham, Washington. Those with Amity Park are the big seven in America.

"Whose problem is the worst?"

"Ours, of course. You don't think, we'd ever get it the easiest, do you?"

"Of course not, would make life too easy." Dash said sardonically.

"Who are you telling?" He agreed, "You have any more questions for me?"

"How do you transform? Like do you say something? Or can you do it without thinking?"

"Going ghost!" Danny transformed in the normal way. When the light faded, Dash was looking at him wide-eyed, filled with amazement.

"Those fucking rings of light and that sound are so goddamn cool."

"Hold up," Danny said, "You can look into the light? It doesn't mess with your eyes in any way?"

"It doesn't bother me at all, why?

"It blinds everybody else. This is as bright as the flash of an atom bomb. Literally."

"I see some light and I see your silhouette. It's pretty awesome looking to be honest. It's kinda the coolest thing I've ever seen."

"Wait, you can see into that, you don't even squint?" Danny was curious, this whole thing was curious.

"No, is there something wrong?"

"No, but that's something to be investigated. I mean from the legends I've read it just means that you're meant to look at it."

"I'm meant to look?" He was severely confused.

"I have a sort of manual of how all this ghost/human interaction." Danny remembered receiving the book a while ago, but more on that later.

"Where is it?" Dash was hoping against hope that he would say anywhere but his goddamn bedroom.

Danny took deep breath, "The book is on my bedroom."

* * *

"I don't mind at all if you come in Dash." Danny, now transformed back to human form, said in the long hallway that led to his bedroom. Das followed dutifully behind as they got to his door, which resembled the others, but had a 'Do Not Enter' poster on the door.

"Are you sure?" Dash asked he looked at the door to the bedroom as if it was the door to the electric chair. "I mean I don't like wanna seem like I'm you know tempting you. Not that like you don't have any control, like it's your own body and… like I know we can wait and like sex is- I'm going to shut up now." The whole 'Minimal Awkwardness Possible' had died.

"Dash don't worry, I don't feel pressured. Just come in and relax. Besides after a while I think this room will be your second home. Now come in already."

"You just love putting me off guard. You're the only one who can do it too."

"Call it payback for pushing me against those lockers." Danny smirk.

"You better wipe that smirk off your face. Hell, you probably liked it."

"No comment." Danny turned around to open the door.

"I knew that was a fucking boner every time I had you pinned," It was Dash's turn to smirk.

Danny stopped cold and shuddered, having just put his hand on the knob. "You knew?"

"You can't hide that fucking billy club if you tried. You don't know how many fucking times I wanted to grab that thing. You're fucking gifted."

"Well, now I'm not sure if I want to let you in."

"You promised," Dash seemed to regain the upper hand.

"Fine." Fenton said, "You're right."

"Thank you."

Danny opened the door and Dash looked in sort of peeking through the door. He took a cautious step into the room taking in the sight. He didn't know what to do. He sat on the bed feeling familiar with the space really familiar. Like he had seen it before. The room was painted a dark blue, prussian blue. The floor was shag carpeting, like a slate gray color. The frame of his bed was weathered ash as was his headboard, making a sort of relaxed sandy/charcoal color. He had seriously seen all of this before. He looked at the sheets, light gray. They comforters were white just as he had anticipated. He recognized it all. " _What the fuck? I've seen all this shit before. All of it. Like seriously, all of it, the bed, the sheets, the wall, everything."_

"Danny, this room ever been featured on TV or something? Did they like do a piece on you on tv?"

"No. Why?" Danny was on the far side of the room by his window, looking in a box on the floor. He was a bit distracted and could not really think about the question. He really wanted to find the little brown book.

"It's just like I've been in here before. Like I recognize this room, everyplace else in this house of yours is new, but this room is so familiar. I just can't put my finger on it."

Dash continued to look around. He looked in front of him at Danny's computer. The webcam caught his eye. He got up and walked over to the unit. He got eye level with the webcam, turned around and looked at the bed. " _Oh shit. Oh shit! Shit!"_

That was the angle he recognized the room from. He had seen this room through the lens of a webcam and he wondered why and how that was possible. And then it hit him.

"Wait, wait, wait," Dash started still standing by the computer, "Danny, you go online much?"

Danny was getting down towards the bottom of the box, having displaced all the books, DVD's, and other junk. "When I can. It's not an everyday thing. In the summer I go on a lot more often than during the school year, why?"

"Now, Danny, I need you to be honest with me. When you get online, what do you do?"

"The usual shit. Watch some funny videos, read some fanfictions, watch porn. Well, maybe that last one should have gone first, why?"

"Nothing- well, I guess. Fuck it… I'm gonna take the plunge… Does AmitySexStud ring a bell?"

Danny had not heard the question, instead saying, "Found it." Of course it was at the bottom of the box. It was a brown leather book about the size of a Bible. It had that thin bible paper too, but there was nothing strictly Christian about this book. "I'm sorry Dash did you say something?"

"I said does, AmitySexStud mean anything to you?" Dash was embarrassed at the name he had picked for himself it was obvious enough at the time. No one had taken it, because apparently the town was as chaste as ice. Well except for the people in this clusterfuck of events.

"What?!" Danny was flabbergasted, "Wait, what… how do you..."

"Oh my fucking God! It's so shitting obvious" Dash put it together, stared down at his feet, unable to fathom all of this, "Shit, you're GhostTwink88, aren't you?" Dash couldn't believe the evidence was in front of him clear as crystal. It was almost farcical to think that it was right in front of him the whole time. It was no wonder that the two of them always turned the mics off. Their 'renown' about town would have been tarnished if anyone found out the truth. Dash spoke for the third time on this matter, "I recognized this room from the view I would get from the webcam. I guess we know even more about each other than we had originally thought. I would say 'caught you' but it was my dick in yours screen, your ass on mine. So… I guess _we're_ caught."

They both were now staring at their feet, Danny's 12's and Dash's 14's. They both had semis definitely on their ways to throbbers. They both thought back to their experiences together. Up to those times, they were the hottest experiences they'd both had.

"Yes," Danny said, still not looking up. "You caught me. I guess, we had been camming together for a while, so I guess it's not so much of a mystery anymore."

"Oh, yes it is, I've seen it, but there's still mystery there," Dash said, finally working up the nerve to look at Danny, now staring at him like a target, "But I don't know what any of that feels like. I know it won't be today, but I'm going to know soon enough."

Danny blushed, "Well, you have to wait."

"I don't mind."

"And I'm in control as to when I let you-"

"It's all up to you," Dash said.

"Really?"

"You're not just some bitch I can leave, I like you too much. I can wait, I wouldn't want to do it now anyway while you're feelings are still raw about them. I don't want any part of you and me being together, together like that, to have anything to do with them. I want to really get to know you. I want my first time, our first time to be special."

"You mean to tell me that the football stud hasn't fucked anyone yet?" Danny said, "And that as frustrated as we both are right now, you don't want to just fuck me right here, right now?"

"Yeah, but don't tell anyone." Dash didn't realize the irony of the statement as he walked back to the edge of the bed. He did not sit quite yet. "And yes Danny. You don't know how much I want to be inside you right now. How much I want to have you moaning, how much I want to kiss you right now."

For Danny, all of a sudden, the room got hot.

"But Danny, as much as I want to just let go, as much as I want to just fuck- You're special. I never felt like this about anyone, but I don't want to just fuck you, I want to make love to you." Dash never thought he would say those words in a million years. But

"Dash, I-" Danny was overwhelmed with such beautiful and romantic sentiments. He didn't know that Dash was capable of such depth of character. He had underestimated Baxter before, but he was the only one able to put Fenton and Phantom together and get one. He would never underestimate Dash again.

"And I don't think we're ready for it yet." Dash came to the conclusion, "But I know we will be soon."

"Dash, I didn't know you felt so strongly." Danny's astonishment was not contained whatsoever. He hoped that Dash took no notice of his surprise.

"I do." Dash replied, seriously.

"Uh, I wanted to take a look at this book." Danny opened it, "It has to say something about, well, you know, your ability to look at the light."

Dash sat down on the bed as Danny looked through the book. Danny looked through the multiple chapters as Dash remained there, unsure of what he just said and did. A question occurred to him while the other was still perusing. He bit his lip for a moment and tried mightily to suppress it, but his curiosity got the best of him, "Um, Danny, don't take this the wrong way."

"That's never a good way to start-"

"Um, were you always that flexible?"

Danny could not conceal his shock, though, to be honest, he was delighted to hear the question. It made him feel dirty, a good kind of dirty. "With the ghost powers I found that I could be more athletic and flexible."

"Oh."

"I was scrawny before, but I'm sure you noticed that it was less skin and bones and more muscle that you were pushing up on those lockers."

"I thought I was just fantasizing." Dash said more to himself than anyone else.

…

"Found it." Danny said, "I've found the explanation of this."

"What does it say?"

"Theese wordes are to any manne whoo can see throoh the lyghte of a ghoste. He is the one whoo holdeth the ghoste's life in his hartte. He is the keaper of the ghoste" Danny's couldn't help but read that slowly with the ridiculous spelling from this seventeenth century. "So fyghte the goode fyghte and be the faythfulle bearer of his soule. Fyght the goode fyght and love the one whoose soule yu possess"

"What?" Dash said. "Fight the good fight? The soul I possess? This is sounding kinda serious."

"I'm not done reading: 'Thou art the protector of the goode ghost. Thou shalt not die so long as the ghost liveth."

"Wait… wait, wait. Did that just like say immortality?"

"No, I think it's just poetical." Danny said.

"I don't know Danny."

"Look, nothing special happened to you to make you indestructible. I mean come on."

"You're right." Dash bought that.

"This book is just superstition. I mean it was written in 1657. People were thinking that the best was to cure the common cold was to bleed you. I don't put too much on this. I just thought that it might offer a more realistic thing. I just think you have eyes for me."

"I do." Dash seemed to like to say 'I do' a lot in relation to Danny. He didn't know why, but it felt right. "Uh, you want to just stay in? I'm exhausted. I know that I haven't done much, but can we just chill out. Here or at my place, wherever."

"Thank God, I thought, you'd never ask. Why go to a theater when you know, we can just stream it."


	10. Ten

Thanks everyone for reading, following, and reviewing

* * *

Sam: Come ovr, I need 2 c u

Tucker: Wen u want me 2 come

Sam: asap

Tucker: kk

* * *

Tucker got over to Sam's about an hour later, wearing a backpack too. It was ten o'clock on a rainy Sunday morning when he rang the doorbell to Chez Manson. He wasn't nervous. 'I need to see you,' did not strike the fear of God into him. So he arrived, eager, and with protection in his back pocket. They had been kinda inconsistent about it, but after Friday, after the two of them had a talk, the came to some conclusions. First and most obviously, that Danny was not their friend. Second, that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Third, that they were now officially together (meaning they would show public displays of affection). Fourth, now that Danny Phantom was not any of their problem, they could do whatever. Fifth, they would not be helping Danny with anymore of that 'ghosty shit', as they called it. Finally, she committed silently to herself that she would actually try to make this thing work out.

She did not know how long she was going to last in the relationship because of what was going on with her. She had been feeling sick in the mornings for a while now. She had blamed the Danny situation at first. I mean come on, he was all about lying to them from the very beginning. He withheld important information for the entirety of their relationship. But there was no need to beat this dead horse.

She thought, in the beginning, her body was having the psychosomatic signs of disgust with Danny. What was disgusting her, of course, were all the lies. But she knew that this stuff wasn't subconscious. No matter how badly Danny had fucked with her psyche, she knew he was not omnipotent and omniscient. He was a mighty specimen, but could not control that. He didn't have the power to make her period late. He didn't have the ability to make her feel sick, or make her lose her breakfast.

She couldn't blame Danny for the veins becoming more prominent on her thighs or her breasts getting heavier. She knew she could not blame puberty either. That was not a good enough explanation for it.

When she let Tucker in, he leant towards her and gave her a kiss on those full lips of hers. That kiss turned into something deeper as his hands found their way around her waist. It was always interesting how a peck on the lips turned to swapping saliva, but their 'dysfunction' was always interesting. He had a plan for today.

He knew that if he could play his hand right that maybe he could get her to try something new. She was the adventurous type. I mean come on, she was willing take it outside, on a mountaintop. And she had liked it too, especially angry. She was a feisty specimen when there was emotion to her sex. He thought he put in an adequate service. If you asked her, she would say that he was more than adequate, proficient, expert. Of course this was the only man she had ever had the pleasure of experiencing, but her estimation of his skillset made her quite sure that, objectively, he was good. Length, check. Girth, check. Duration, check plus plus.

He thought highly of her in that regard too. Tightness, check. Wetness, check. Warmth, check plus plus. He deepened the kiss and caressed her body. The curves on her were exceptional in his opinion. He felt this way because the flesh always seemed to fit perfectly into his hands. No curve on her had gone untouched, un-tickled, or un-licked. Conversely, her mouth had been in places beside his mouth. She was a good kisser above and below. And her willingness to kiss below was also admirable. Her skill in kissing would be world renowned. His only complaint was washing the dark lipstick out of his pubes later. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, that was a trivial complaint.

Of course she was so eager to because he had no problem having a meal down there. He had no problem whatsoever eating the cookie, or biscuit or whatever you like to call it. Her only complaint was that he would occasionally need to rise to breathe.

Enough of that. Methinks you get it.

Tucker had wanted, as was previously said, to try something new today. He had the supplies with him in his bag. He, as also aforementioned, knew that the semantics in approaching this whole thing. He had seen it in porn before, and the girls looked like they were into it, like seriously into it. (Of course, porn girls were a good, no, the BEST gauge for the attitudes of real women.) He had the endless supply of lube, he had the rubbers, he had the will, he had the lines to say planned out in his head. It was all up to her, as it should be in these situations. He really wanted to go for it, but he could not be sure. Anal was the last frontier. He did not know if he could plant the flagpole that day, but he planned to claim that ass in the name of Foley if it killed him.

They let each other go, because biology dictates that humans require oxygen to live. She looked at him nervously. She was moist, he was hard (she had to rip her eyes away from that to look him in the eye). She didn't know what to do. Tell him and ruin his very good time, or let him have his way and then tell him.

After a moment she thought that it would be wrong to string him along. Tucker went in for another kiss and she backed away.

"No, Tucker," she spoke gently, "We have to talk. It's important."

"Oh?" His voice had the slight twang of fear in it.

"Yeah," Sam said. "Let's go upstairs."

The walk down her hallway felt like a mile to Tucker. His prick went back to its normal state as he walked the mile. Things were starting to click in his head. Danny had set some thoughts in motion. That whole 'it's reassuring to know that you're not fucking her while she's bleeding.' comment gave him pause. The reason he had shoved Danny off the table is because he knew that Danny was right. It pissed him off that Danny had thought of an angle that he had not considered. Other than that first time, when he broke the hymen, she had not bled, not fucking once. He, Tucker Foley, knew the undeniable and now inconvenient facts of life. He knew that girls were supposed to have periods, but she hadn't, not once.

When he started having sex with her, he knew that periodically (pun intended) she was supposed to refuse him entry because of… you know. And that never happened. And they had been fucking for something like eight weeks. He wasn't an expert, far from it. He knew that that bleeding thing varied from girl to girl, but wouldn't a normal girl have had at least one by now. He tried with all his might to dismiss those thoughts. But he couldn't shake them. The thoughts were too real, too… true. He wanted to kick himself for ignoring the signs. It looked like reality was going to do the kicking for him, a million times better than he ever could,

His heart started pounding out of his chest. He could hear it beating in his ears. Panic was something he had grown accustomed to. Fighting ghosts had a way of testing your heart muscles. This kind of panic was different. It was a slow, creeping, crawling growing dread. Fighting ghosts was like dropping an atom bomb. The panic he was feeling right now was more like being on fire. The pain was slow to start, but sustained.

They arrived in her bedroom. He sat on the bed and he watched her pace. She was nervous too. Their nerves multiplied each other. They fed off of each other's skittishness.

"Tucker, I don't know how to say this. All my life I promised myself that I wouldn't be the one this happened to. I would let the popular girls go through it. I was supposed to be the smart girl, laughing at or judging the girls this happened to." She shrieked, "It can't fucking be me! Not fucking me!" He could have sworn that he saw some moisture running down her cheeks. "I'm not supposed to be the slut. Not me!"

"Sam will you just tell me," Tucker said, "I think I have an idea. Just be honest with me and tell me what it is. I know that whatever it is, you and me can make it work. We can figure our way out of any problem" He reached out his hand. She grabbed it and proceeded to sit on his lap. He turned her face towards his. And he got the affirmative proof that she had been crying. Her cheeks had dark black streaks from the tears mixing in with mascara and black eyeliner. Her usually limpid, violet eyes were read and stained with tears, He sort of nudged her to look at him. "Now, tell me what's wrong, Sam?"

"I think I'm pregnant." She blurted it out. She wanted to bury her head in his shoulders but something made here get up and start pacing again.

"What?" Tucker said, not so much surprised at the news but taken aback that she wasn't sure, "What do mean 'think'? You mean you're not sure?"

"I mean 'think'. What does 'think' mean? I have an opinion, a belief, an idea. It just ain't quite fact yet. I haven't taken a test yet, but all the signs are there. I'm throwing up, stressed out, gaining weight, headaches. I'm tired all the time. I know that I don't feel normal."

"Did you take a test?" He asked lost in all of her dramatics.

"No, I already told you Tucker," Sam said, "I didn't."

"Are you sure, Sam?" Tucker asked, "You sure it's not just stress? I know this whole Danny situation-"

"Has nothing to do with it." Sam completed the thought, "I don't allow dramatic, lying, unctuous bitches to affect me like that." Fangs were out. Tucker sure as hell was not getting bitten.

"Fine."

"No, not fine," Sam said, hysterical. "I'm pregnant."

"You just said that you weren't sure." Tucker said.

"Tucker, I haven't had my period in weeks. And we were irresponsible a few times. " She said, still pacing frantically.

"Are you sure though?" The news was not resonating with him. She was bouncing off of the walls and he was a statue.

"Tucker, if your period stops it means your pregnant." She reminded him of some of the information learned in sex-ed.

"Are you sure it stopped. You know like stress can make it irregular. And you're a vegan or a ultra-recyclo-vegetarian or whatever so you don't get enough protein and iron. Maybe that, coupled with the stress of the whole Phantom situation has you all stopped up." Tucker was trying his best to find an alternative explanation. He was grasping for straws as the truth was dawning on him. He turned around and glanced out of the window. The sky was darkening as much as his mood was. The drops that clung onto the window held his attention for a split second. He escaped for a moment, but then, like one of those drops of rain, came back down to earth.

"No, Tucker, mine are really heavy."

"What?"

"My period is like the elevator doors in _The Shining_."

The image stuck with him as she walked over to her drawer. She opened it and scooped a bunch of boxes out it. She dumped them onto the bed. He looked at them, all six of them and realized what they were. If he wanted the proof, he could have it in ten minutes or less. He did not know that there were so many brands, but he did now. He looked up at her.

"I uh," She sat down beside him and started to open the boxes, tearing them like an animal, "I'm gonna take all of these, cuz you know, they're not a hundred percent."

* * *

She emerged from her bathroom with all six of the pregnancy tests in a clear plastic cup. The cup had obviously been used as a receptacle for her piss. She had used it and tipped them all in. After they were given a perfect sample to test, she dumped the piss. Enchantress that she was, she handed the cup to him. It was still warm, but he held back his feelings of disgust. He knew that his life was in the balance, so a warm piss cup was the last thing he cared about. They sat looking at each other. The first and most expensive test claimed that a result would pop up in sixty seconds. The rest all took between three and five minutes. The looked at the clock on her wall. Yes, she actually had a clock on her wall. It was one of those expensive ones with the sweeping second hands. Not ticking.

They both watched as the red hand made a revolution around the clock face, and then another, and then a third.

"What are we going to do?" Sam asked, in a low sob. "What are we going to do?"

"We'll be fine, no matter what happens." Tucker seemed optimistic, "I mean we live in these United States of America… and I mean.. we have a lot of… options"

Sam didn't know what he meant, exactly. And to be honest with you, that was a bit of a riddle. She just thought of it as one of the reasons she liked him. When he wasn't kicking Danny's ass for shit-talking, he was an optimist. She didn't know, even in the face of their innocence being completely ended, how he could keep being relatively cheerful. When it didn't annoy her, it endeared him to her, it made him less cartoonish and more human. She thought to herself stuck in a farce, a dark comedy. It was as if someone was writing out her life for her and that author decided to put her through hell. She shook her head and chuckled ironically.

"I mean." Tucker said, interrupting her thoughts, "There but for the grace of God, go us."

"Tucker, we're both atheists." She huffed half laughing, half scoffing. "The magic invisible man ain't coming to help us with shit."

"Fine." Tucker said, agreeing with her.

"I'm sorry, I'm just stressed out, ok?"

"I am too."

"I'm the one with the vagina." She said.

"Look," Tucker started, "I'm not going to argue with you right now. There's no time for this. We are sitting here waiting for the results of pregnancy test. We are sitting here knowing the inevitable. If it's true, and it looks like it is, then our fucking lives are over as we know it. School is done, friends are done. I don't know about your parents, but Tucker Foley will be out in the street, destitute. You're the heiress to a billion dollar fortune, but as fucking backwards as your parents are I don't know how your parents would accept your kid.

"My kid?" Sam said, "Nuh uh, Mister, you mean _our_ kid."

"That's what I meant."

"That's not what you said," She replied. "Two to tango, two to fucking tango."

"You're right. All I was saying was that I don't know how your parents will accept the kid given the kid's circumstances."

"Don't play the race card." Sam scoffed, "They're not racists. They're not like that"

"That's not what I'm saying." Tucker replied calmly "I mean the kid is a _bastard,"_ He whispered the last word.

"Oh," Sam said, "I see. I don't know."

"Why would I bring up race?" Tucker furrowed his eyebrow. "I seriously hadn't thought of it."

"I'm sorry, I'm really fucking tense and that's where my mind went. I know that my parents don't have any feelings about it. I know my parents are all-"

"Sam," Tucker authoritatively took control of this, "Calm down."

"I might be pregnant, how are you telling me to calm down," Sam almost screamed.

"I might be the father, and I'm calm."

"But Tucker, don't you understand- This is-"

"Samantha," Tucker said, catching her attention. He was the first and only one who could refer to her as 'Samantha' without getting punched out. Not even when they were all friends could Danny dare to utter her name in three syllables. Tucker continued in his earnest attempt to mollify her anxiety ridden nerves. "This, all of these hysterics, is you leaving Earth. If you are pregnant, you need to keep calm, because it's not just you who's stressed. Everything you do will be for two from now on. So stop stressing. Let's calm down before you do an injury to yourself. Let's come back down to Earth and try to think this all the way through. Hell, you might not even be pregnant. It could be stress or something else. Let's answer the big questions first."

"Fine," She looked back at the clock, and shut her eyes so tight that it almost hurt. "It's been seven minutes now. Can you read them?" She mouth shut into a thin line and she grasped his hand. "I can't look at them. I'm freaking out too much."

"Okay, Sam, I'll read them." It was like drawing straws as he withdrew one of the tests He looked at the printed guide on it which told him that a light blue cross would appear in the little window if she was pregnant. "This one is positive."

Tucker put it back in the cup and took out another of the tests. She squeezed his hand even tighter, feeling the full length, breadth, height and depth of dread filling her, drowning her and crushing her. On this one, the second of the half dozen tests, two pink lines were supposed to appear if the subject was pregnant. And two pink lines there were. "This one is positive too."  
The third one was fancy and had a digital sort of display. It said 'pregnant', "And this one."

It continued in the same fashion for the next three test. They all agreed.

Samantha Manson was with child and Tucker Foley was the father.

"We're fucked, aren't we?" Tucker asked.

"That's putting it mildly." Sam answered.

"And to think I had plans today. We were going to do all sorts of shit. Well, if you wanted to." Tucker said.

"I would've done anything. There were some things I was curious about too, wanted to try, but not now."

"Like what?" Tucker asked.

"Just try some things, but it doesn't matter now."

"I mean, Sam, do you think of this as like a problem?"

"Yes, I mean you don't, man?" Sam asked him

"I mean of course, but I mean… there's options." He was a stammering mess as he lay down, " there's options. I mean there's ways of fixing it. We can fix it. I know we can."

"Can we?" Sam was perplexed. Now of course, most people can put together what Tucker meant. It was flying right above her head as she reclined beside him. They both stared at Samantha's ceiling, pondering what the fuck they had managed to get themselves into.

"Yes, Sam. There's a clinic in Elmerton, not that we should go to that shithole. The next closest one is in Cosgrove town, if I'm not mistaken and I think there's one in Clarendon County. It's not too hard in this state. On demand, and our parents don't need to know a thing."

"Tucker… oh shit… you're not talking about… Abortion…"

"What choice do we have, Sam?"

"But, it's a baby-"

"Sam, sacrifice is the story of our lives. For all these years this whole Danny-chasing-ghosts-thing, was us giving up our lives to save this asshole town from these asshole ghosts. This summer we have been free for the first time in months, No responsibility, just being teenagers."

"And look where this 'no responsibility' thing got us?"

"Granted, the two of us made some really shitty decisions. But should our lives be over as we know it because we had sex without protection? I'm sorry, but all this time I have wasted in my life giving up my freedom saving this town every ten seconds. I like being free and I don't want to give that up." Tucker said, laying the groundwork of his argument.

"I don't either, but it's not this person's fault." She pointed at her belly, "This little one didn't ask us to be put in this place."

"No, but what good would it be if that kid grew up knowing that he was an accident? What kind of way is that to live?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know Tucker, this is a whole 'nother person here." She said, "This kid could be an astronaut."

"And what about us… we'll be nothing." Tucker argued, "And besides, what happened to all that liberal pro-choice stuff you say in school."

"I can choose to keep the baby too," Sam said, rising to pace again, "I don't know what to do."

"We have options."

"Fuck that whole options and choice shit. Why don't you make the choice for me?" Sam yelled at him.

"Let's go, right now then and do it before it's too late." Tucker said.

"But I don't want to," she said.

"Then, congratulations Samantha Manson, you're having a baby!" He yelled, "And you're dragging Tucker Foley down with you."

"I don't want to have a baby." Sam said.

Tucker stood up, "Then what do you want?"

"I don't know." She collapsed into him and sobbed into him.

"Well, ummm," Tucker felt the words leaving his mouth, but he disagreed with them most vehemently, "Sam, I know this is some tough shit, and I know that I'm not the best in a pinch like this. But I know this, you're smart, you're pretty, and either way we'll be fine. You have some time to think about it. The door is still wide open and um… no matter what you decide, I'll stick by you. We're in this together. I know that you have a lot to think about. You've been selfless all your life, maybe this once, you can be selfish and give yourself a chance at a better, freer life, just this once. You deserve that. As fucked up as we are, I think we deserve better."

"Me too," Sam said, "I don't know what that means quite yet, but I want to live for me."

Tucker stiffened up a bit. That was not reassurance. She was a woman after all and a woman can say one sentence and mean three knew that the next few weeks would be him waiting. Waiting for her to decide. There was no way that this discussion was over.

He tightened his end of the hug, afraid of what the future held.


	11. Eleven

"No, Dash, don't do it," Danny was struggling to hold his boyfriend back. He didn't want to have to resort to using his super strength, but he would if he absolutely had too. It was Monday and they were in Dash's room. You see, Danny had flown over to Dash's early. They wanted to have a chat before they went to school and devise a strategy to avoid suspicion. Well, to be honest, the majority of the day preceding was spent planning how to avoid staring at each other all day, especially in PE. That morning Danny knew he should have refused to answer another question, or re-answer it, but now he had to defuse an a-bomb. He stood between Dash and his bedroom door holding back a torrent of rage.

"Who the fuck does he think he is pushing you around like that?" Dash asked, fists clenched, "I'll fucking punch those glasses off his dumb fucking face. Thinks he can push my boyfriend around. I'll push him off a fucking chair and see how he likes it."

"What will that solve, Dash?" Danny asked, spreading his limbs against the door, effectively barricading Dashiel inside. Danny resolved not to move until he was resolved that Dash would not murder Tucker. Seriously. He would block Dash all day if he had to. The irony was not lost on Danny that Dash was upset about someone bullying him. He also remembered how 'gently' Dash bullied him. He had to shake his head to get the images of Dash's hands all over him our of his mind. This was serious stuff.

"It solves my anger." Dash answered truthfully, "It solves the conflict of some geek thinking he can mess with my boyfriend."

"I appreciate you wanting to protect and defend me Dash, I really do like that about you. No one has ever made me feel so safe before. Thanks for that," Danny kind of trailed off awkwardly."

"I didn't know you felt like that. I.. uh… I promise I will protect you. And the first way I will start is by acquainting Foley's face with my fist."

"But Dash, before you go alI gangbusters on him, I need you to think about this. If you go beating up Tucker because he shoved me, won't it look strange to everyone? Won't people wonder why you would take up for my defense? People would wonder why would you be so protective of me. " Danny and that damn logic. "You know it would be too all of a sudden. What would you say?"

"I could just say that you're mine to bully…" He stopped realizing how very suspicious that sounded, "Fuck! You're right."

"Besides the fight would be over in seconds. Someone would be screaming," Danny cleared his throat to change his voice into a bad, and I mean disgraceful, Howard Cosell impression, "Down goes Foley! Down goes Foley! Down goes Foley! And Baxter is as poised as can be in a neutral corner!" Danny coughed a bit after the strain

"That was terrible. Stick to fighting ghosts, because impressions ain't your thing." Dash said snickering a bit, before his voice got deadly serious again, "But that doesn't stop me from wanting to drop him like a bad habit."

"Please, with all that shit from Friday, I say let that whole thing be a clean break from the both of them. I don't have to see 'em and I don't have to talk to 'em, so it all works out for the best. As much as I want you or me to kick Tucker's ass, I know that it would just open up a Pandora's box of shit."

"Fine, Danny, you're right. I won't touch him unprovoked. If he starts it though, I will finish it. I don't do none of that backing down shit."

"Fine, but we both have secrets on one another. He's fucking Sam, and you're dating me." Danny replied, "You have a whole hell of a lot more to lose than he does."

"So what, do I just let him walk all over me like I'm his bitch."

"No, you avoid him and when you can't you keep calm. Turning the other cheek, I guess. Somehow I think that 'you reap what you sow stuff' is going to come back around with a vengeance."

"Any other Bible quotes, Reverend?" Dash asked. "I thought you weren't into that stuff.

"Blessed are the peacemakers. If we keep the peace between you and me and Tucker and Sam, I think we'll be okay, but we have to keep it on our side. No fighting, no verbal shit, no altercations, no nothing and I think all of this will go away."

"Life ain't that simple. You of all people should know that. Life is not simple and for you, neither is death. What makes you think that they would just leave us alone?"

"I can't be sure of that."

"Danny, 'I can't be sure' is not good enough. I like sure things, sure bets, and that is not it."

"Dash, Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom have always lived with uncertainty. So a human and as a ghost I have to think of any possible problem…"

"And…"

"I roll with the punches."

"I'm used to dealing them out, not dodging them." Dash said honestly. Everything was so certain before for him before. This was his introduction to the ghost fighting life. Silent dread in the background of a mediocre existence. Sounded like him being in the closet. At least he was familiar with the feeling .

"Except that clock ticking in the back of your head, worrying, wondering, scared of the day you slipped or cracked, or got found out. That's the same feeling. I just have it multiplied a few times over." Danny replied.

"Well, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Me pushing you against those lockers with all this other stuff going on was…"Dash trailed off.

"You were coping the best way you knew how." Danny finished it. "That I can forgive 'cause I know where it was coming from."

"I was still a dick to you… I mean like that is some annoying humiliating shit I was doing to you… I'm embarrassed about it now."

"Stop it, Dash, just stop it. You're leaving out a very important fact. Something that we agree was affecting both of us. We were both trying not to let the other know that we were hard. Probably leaking too. You failed in that you couldn't conceal that thing if you tried."

"You don't think I saw that your pants were getting tight under there? That's why I always had. my knee between your legs. I wanted you to slip up and grind on me…" Dash was blushing furiously.

"Did I ever slip up?"

"Every fucking day." Dash replied, "Every single day it was like you ended up dry humping me."

"Well, you're one to talk." Danny retorted gently, "You always insisted on getting as close to me as possible. And your cock would always end up touching me Dash through the jeans. You always ended up with you cock basically on my abs, dry fucking me. I could always feel it throbbing on me."

"I didn't realize all that shit was so gay." Dash said going through it all in his head. "We were always probably an inch or two from making out, or more than that."

"Definitely more." Danny answered, starting to blush, "After what I've seen of you, after what I could feel of you when you backed me into the walls or lockers. I think it would have gone further than just kissing, much further."

"Oh, really, GhostTwink88?" Dash answered, his voice inadvertently became gruff and sensual. Seriously, he did not know that he was doing it. His body made the decision for him when it came to Danny. His mind had to override his urge to rip their clothes off and fuck like animals. "Like what?"

"Well, AmitySexStud, that all depends." Danny's voice was beckoning Dash to do something naughty to him. Dash approached him and basically surrounded Danny with his sheer physicality, basically pinning Danny against his bedroom door.

"Depends on what?" Dash was literally breathing down his neck. Dash had to resist the urge to stick out his tongue and lick him. Teenagers were supposed to be horny, but this shit was supernatural (literally). It was taking every fiber of Dash's being pulling in the same direction not to swoop down and kiss him. He respected Danny too much not to just rush in.

Danny quivered in delight, feeling Dash's warmth on him. Something told him to lock lips with Dash right then, but he disregarded the thought. He knew that he would go all the way in that moment. He knew that he wouldn't make it to school that whole day. Neither of them could afford the suspicion. And... It would be ruined, too. It would have happened too impulsively for either of their tastes. They wanted to want it more for just sex, but for many deeper feelings too. You know those 'L' words. They had to go down the checklist. Like, check. Longing, check. Loyalty, check. Love, not quite a check, but moving at light-speed in that direction.

"Depends," Danny started, "On how well you can pursue."

Just then Danny went intangible but not invisible. He flew under the floor and flew back into Dash's room. Dash was still stood there blinking, surprised that Danny was gone. Danny reappeared behind him floating a bit so that Danny could whisper into Dash's ear. Danny whispered in a hushed, sexual tone, "And I'm hard to capture."

It was Dash's turn to squirm. And he did. Dash had never been the one under pressure in a relationship. Girls used to just fall into his lap. They would have fallen, vag first, right onto his dick if they had the opportunity, if he had opened his pants. But that shit was meaningless, and not just because the the thought of fucking a girl left him limp. The thought of boys throwing themselves at him was almost as bad. Sure, he would have gotten wood, but it would have felt so cheap. But now, Danny made him do something he had not done in a long time.

Danny made him try. Danny made him put in an effort, a real effort for the first time ever.

How? As you know, the American educational system had an uncanny way of separating the wheat from the chaff. (That's the third Biblical reference, I am not doing this on purpose.) The wheat and chaff were separated in two ways. The best athletes and the best brainiacs were often segregated from the rest and given special attention. Dash was quite a specimen indeed. So, early on he was given a pass, as long as he kept excelling at football.

You see, he didn't have to try with football. It was easy, second nature. His mindset made him perfect for the sport, and his body grew into a juggernaut that dominated the field. There was no effort put in to get his body in the right place to play. And he could flip a switch in his head and be competent and competitive enough to win. Dash personified everything the NFL wanted. So, no trying necessary.

On the other side of his school life, the academic side things were made as easy as playing football. The same way the poindexters breezed through higher mathematics is the same way he went through school. The teachers cut him considerable slack, bearing in mind that he brought the school a certain sense of celebrity. They knew that he was sought after, so they incentivized him to remain. He was smart, though, but he always hesitated to use his brains. Seriously, if he put in half the gumption in the classroom as he did on the field, he would be on the honor roll.

Danny, however, with the issuance of that challenge piqued an interest. He wanted to feel like the hunter for once. He wanted to be a go-getter at something besides football, And Danny could be his test case. Dash knew he was capable of it. Danny had aroused his competitive instinct. The chase and capture was going to be all the more tantalizing. Dash just knew he couldn't wait to claim Danny, and the associated parts in the name of Baxter.

"Challenge accepted." Dash said, with Danny still behind his ear. Danny would have been scared if he saw the look of determination on Dash's face. As he didn't know the resolve, Dash now had, he made himself that much more vulnerable. He did not mind feeling helpless with Dash, but he had to build that trust. It was obvious that Dash was committed, but a burned child dreads the fire.

And Danny had been burned by people he had considered friends before. He knew that it would take him some time to heal and trust again. He felt selfish, very inconsiderate that he was making Dash wait, but he had to. He hoped that Dash understood him. Dash seemed to get it, but Danny knew that the quickest way to lose someone was to not be completely open with them. Danny would try his best to open up, but it would be like a flower in the spring. He would open up, more and more by degrees.

Little did Danny know that Dash would be willing to wait. As much as Dash wanted to go for it, he realized that Danny was hurt. There was no need to push it. Danny and he would become closer, with time. Dash would have liked to think that they would go all the way by his birthday in November, maybe for his birthday. Maybe he could expect some Fenton 'boi-box' by Christmas, or to ring in the two thousand and whatever it would be. Dash had stopped keeping track of time that way. Years were like eternities. He, especially over the last week, was living day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.

He wasn't so much focused on sex as he was getting Danny ready for it. He had to prepare himself too. This whole being gay thing was still in a form of abstraction for him. Watching porn was still something that separated him from the real thing. The sex was taking place almost theoretically. That is to say, when he turned the computer off, he could put being gay away for a while. He could put it in a box. But when and if that day comes. You know, the day, Danny was under him, or riding him, or whatever. That day would be the death of something. He didn't know what it was yet, but it would be the demise of something he had been living with since the first time he got wood from looking at a boy. He could not name it now, but he would probably find a word for it.

He was just terrified of the whole thing.

And that was another thing they had in common.

Dash looked down at his watch. It was time for them to get going. He didn't want to leave, but he had to. Dash turned swiftly to the still floating Danny Fenton. "We have to get going."

"Yeah, remember the plan?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I remember you fly to the alley, land at 7:33 and get to school at 7:40. You get your books and scram. I get to where your locker is at 7:50. Since you're not there, I won't be 'bullying' you." Dash repeated their strategy. They called it the **NEW** strategy, so that they aroused no suspicion from the teachers, their classmates, or anyone else about gayness or strategy was put into action so that **N** obody **E** ver **W** onders.

"I mean, we won't be able to talk to you… or anything today," Dash went into adorable puppy dog mode. "I'm going to miss you."

Danny gave Dash a kiss on the cheek, "Well, remember me with that Dash. I'll see you later."

With that, Danny went intangible and flew through the ceiling. Dash did not think he would ever wash that cheek again. He didn't think he would stop blushing either. Danny was making him squirm in the best possible way. He promised that he would pay the boy back.

* * *

Dash was driving to the school and was making good time according to the plan. He was stopped at a red light on the corner of Main and Third. He looked up and saw Danny flying in broad daylight as if no one could see him.

"What the fuck is he doing?!" Dash yelled in the car, drowning out the shock jocks he was listening to. He had his windows open so anyone passing by would have heard him too. Thought they probably would have assumed that someone said something outrageous on the radio. That's digression and superfluous detail, back to the important stuff. He, Dash, watched as Danny went and landed in the alley where they had agreed. His face was the picture of complete stupefaction.

BEEP

He heard the car behind him and looked at the light and saw that is was green . Dash pulled out of the intersection and continued on. "No, I got to know what he was doing."

Dash waited until he saw a spot on the side of the road and then he pulled over. He put on his hazards and got his phone out of the glove compartment. He was so responsible, not because he cared, but because the ticket was $150 and two points on his license. He liked having a car, fuck that walk everywhere shit. It wasn't like he could fly. He went into his contacts and found Danny, right under 'Dad'. The funny thing is that his Dad would object to being so close in the phone to his boyfriend. Dash liked it, because he could silently give the finger to that stupid cunt (his father of course, not his boyfriend).

He pressed the name on that touch screen and held the phone up to his ear. He rolled up his window so that nobody, except a stalking lip-reader, could tell what he was saying. He listened to it ring once, and then again, and then a third time. In the middle of the fourth ring, Danny answered.

"Hell-"

"Fenton," Dash realized in that moment that he resorted to last names when he was upset, "Fenton, what the fuck were you doing?"

"What are you talking about?" Danny shuddered and thought "Oh shit, don't tell me he's one of those clingy types."

"I mean you flying in daylight like that. Couldn't you have gone all invisible and then you were flying dressed as Fenton. What the fuck, man?" Dash was more perplexed than angry.

"Dash, what are you talking about, of course I flew invisibly to the alley."

"I could see you."

"What?" Danny asked, realizing what was going on. "What do you mean you could see me?"

"Just like I said, I could see you as if you weren't trying to be invisible." It was dawning on Dash too, "Like what was that little back flip thing at the end?"

"What?" Danny was realizing that Dash did indeed see him. "You saw that."

"Yeah and I thought you superhero types flew with your fists pointed out, but you flew with your arms at your sides, still in fists though" Dash confirmed another detail.

"That's only in the movies Dash. Your hand gets cold if you fly with your hand out like…" He trailed off. "This is some strange shit."

"The funny part is that you flew right past the sun and you didn't make a shadow. Like you were almost like translucent. I could kinda see through you, but I could see that you were definitely there. And the sun didn't bother my eyes, like not at all. I don't have those purple spots like when you look at the sun. I didn't have to squint or anything."

"That sounds crazy. I mean don't get me wrong, I believe you. I do, but that sounds like a superpower to me. And I can look directly into the sun too, without anything going wrong. But I think there's more to the whole thing. To like be able to see ghosts, I mean. Or at least me when I go invisible. Whatever the case is, you need to come over to my house at 3 o'clock. Apparently we need to do some experimentation." Danny had not meant to but added another dimension to concluding word of that last sentence. Dash read into that dimension, and his whole body twitched.

"You know how to make a man horny," Dash responded. "What am I supposed to do with this growing arousal."

"I aim to please." Danny said, laughing sincerely for the first time in a long time.

"Is that what your laugh sounds like?" Dash asked. "It's really cute."

"Thanks," Danny blushed on his end. "I… uh… I'll see you inside, and make sure you calm yourself down, down there."

"I think you'd be better at that than me." Dash answered.

"Phone sex… seriously… right now?" Danny asked. "Can't this wait?"

"You call that phone sex?" Dash laugh/scoffed, "It's not like I said I'm on my knees in front of your fucking fire hose, taking it so deep down my throat that my nose is pressed into your pubes and that I'm licking your balls with the tip of my tongue. AND your skull fucking me so hard that you're ready to cum and I'm ready to swallow it. Now that's phone sex, Danny." All those words slipped so easily off of his tongue, as if Dash had entertained that image in his head. Granted the image was usually reversed in his head, but this newly described image was very appealing to him.

"Fuck, Dash, what am I supposed to do with this thing you grew in my pants." Danny was now feeling the pain of his jeans being entirely too tight.

"Calm yourself down, down there." Dash returned the advice. "See, you don't like it, do you?"

"Fuck you, asshole," Danny said playfully, not being able to muster the aggression to make it sound believable. In the next beat he realized exactly where Dash's mind would go. He braced himself for the impact of Dash's dirty mind.

Dash liked upset Danny. It made him leak a that nice clear stuff, "Fuck my asshole? That sounds like a plan. Just be gentle. You know, I keep all my muscles tight, including that one"

"I'm hanging up now, Dash," Was all Danny could muster trying to not sound like the horny mess he was. He tried to deflect to Dash. "Horny motherfucker."

"Okay, Fenton, though, I'm more of a Dannyfucker" Dash said before adding one last thing, "You sound like you wanna burst just as much as me. Just don't cream your jeans, man. I don't know how to clean all of that. I'm bad at improvising; I would try to probably lick it it before it stains."

CLICK

Dash was sitting in his car laughing his ass off. He put his phone into his front pocket. It almost didn't fit because he was hard as a fucking rock with all that dirty talk. It also occurred to him that he just went through a whole fantasy whereby he had sucked Danny's dick, gotten fucked in the ass, and ate all the cum afterwards. It seemed, in that moment, that Dash was not as much of a giver as he had thought. He was a very versatile player on the field. And it seemed he was a versatile lover in the boudoir. He could be a giver and a receiver, a wide receiver.


	12. Twelve

"I think we need to really figure this out. I mean I really never lie to my parents about being sick, but we need to talk this shit out." Tucker said, "This is probably the biggest decision ever. And its ramifications will be basically our eternity." Tucker was the one pacing. The weight of the situation had hit him like a ton. It was Monday, and school was in session. They were missing first period at that moment.

"Tucker, I understand this." Sam said. They were at his place, and he was sitting on the modern black sofa that Mrs. Foley was so very proud of. Sam pointed at her belly. It wasn't flat anymore, but she didn't look pregnant, yet. "I am in the worst predicament any teenage girl can get into."

"I am in the worst predicament a teenager boy can get into, but we have to be levelheaded. This is a problem like any other problem. If we weigh our option, we'll find the best way. We're lucky in that the bottomline choice is simple. To give up our lives forever or save ourselves decades of responsibility and burden that we can't handle as of yet."

"I don't see it like that. There is a human being growing inside me right now. I don't look at it as just a burden. I know that our lives are in jeopardy right now, but I don't blame this little one growing. He or she didn't ask to be made. I don't know if I can bear destroying a kid.

"Little one? A kid?" Tucker asked aloud, rhetorically. He knew that with terminology like that, this whole abortion discussion would be an uphill battle. He dug his heels in and realized that this would not be about brutal force. It would be about persuasive speech. Sam would not take off this cloak by him gusting the winds at her, rather he would have to be like the sun. The warmth of his ideas would make her shed the cloak of keeping the child… the baby- He struggled for the right word… This burden.

It was an ugly word to think about, but that child would be a burden, in his opinion. The child would be in a world where its parents were stressed out, too young to cope, probably separated, and bitter about their circumstances. It would not be fair to the child and he knew that. But then, he saw the other argument too. It would not be the baby's fault. And he could be begging Sam to snuff out potential. He could be advocating for the killing of the next Einstein, Hemingway, Ghandi, or Beethoven. At the same time he knew that it could be the next, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Kim Jong-un.

"Sam," He started again, "If we're thinking about keeping this kid. We gotta think of everything. How are we going to tell our parents? What if they put us both out? If they do we have to figure a lot of shit out. Where will we live? How will we make money, especially now without High School diplomas? What will we do for childcare? How will we afford to feed and clothe ourselves, and the baby?-"  
"My parents have money, Tucker." Sam said.

"Exactly," Tucker emphasized, " They have money. And they ain't obligated to give you and me a red cent of it. How can you be sure that your parents will just go for their daughter getting pregnant in high school. Somehow that whole image doesn't match what your parents have presented to me."

"Well, they don't believe in abortion. They're moralists through and through." Sam explained.

"Preaching is easy. Moralism is is nice and fun till when you have to put those morals into practice. Then morals fly out of the window and practicality comes in to roost."

"Any more lectures, Professor Foley." She said bitterly.

"No, but we can't count on our parents having a certain reaction to our secrets. Case and point, Danny thought that he could just keep a secret from us and that we would be okay with the whole thing. He didn't think we would be upset." Tucker gained a bit of clarity in that moment.

"Well that was different." She said, the words coming out like gospel, like instinct.

"In what way?"

"He didn't tell us something integral about him. We can abort this whole thing and the problem will go away. He's gay and no matter how much I don't want him to be. He'll always be that way and he lied to us the whole time-"

"What do you mean you didn't want him to be gay?"

"I wanted him to be normal is all. I wanted everything to be right between us."

"Holy shit… You liked him? You loved him, didn't you?" Tucker put it together. "All this angry shit.. It's because… it's cuz you're jealous. You're mad that he's not your boyfriend. You're mad cuz that's not his baby inside you?"

"Tucker that's crazy." She put in the weakest defense. Probably would have been better for her to take the fifth.

"You don't even deny it." Tucker said sitting down. He shook his head. He laughed bitterly at the situation, "I thought this was therapy sex, I knew that it was sort of rebound-ish. But this, this is something more than that. I'm the rebound for someone you never dated. I had to compete with the romanticized image of the perfect Danny for you. I could never win against that."

"You act as if you cared," she scoffed at him, "All you wanted to get between my legs as quickly as possible. You didn't waste any time plying me with all the sweet nothings. You could not wait to get to work. You started as the shoulder to cry on, and then I cried into your chest. Then when I had finally stopped crying, you compelled me to move my head lower. You just said that you knew where my head was, meaning my thoughts, and you used it to your advantage. Don't get mad now."

"Who said I didn't care? I'm still your friend, your boyfriend…"

"But you took advantage of my vulnerability anyway, so don't you bitch at me about your feelings Tucker."

"Okay," He stood up again, "Fine! you want the truth? In the beginning, yes, I was sad about Danny too, I thought he betrayed us. If he had just told us, I know I would have been fine. In fact, it puts a lot of stuff in perspective. It makes a lot of things make sense. You know, some things I thought were just quirks turned out to be indicators of his… his… uh- preferences. I don't care if wants to suck dick or let another man fuck him up the ass. It's the fact that he couldn't tell us that hurts me the most. You know I thought we could talk about anything. I thought we were closer than that. Maybe he couldn't reconcile it with himself. I'll never know why he didn't tell us. I was wrong for shov-"

She cut him off, "What? Reconcile with himself? He looked pretty reconciled with his sexuality with his ankles tucked behind his ears like that. Fingers deep inside past the second knuckles. Moaning, purring like a pussycat. He looked like he knew what he was about then/ There was nothing confused about that stuff."

"You needn't remind me of the sight or sounds Sam. I remember what I saw, what we saw and heard . It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. That was some real acrobatic skill there." Tucker said that in vague admiration, but wincing at the thoughts. (Not like that, Tucker liked the women. He was just in utter amazement that someone could get his ankles behind his ears.)

"And proof that I didn't have a chance," Sam said, knowing that Tucker was not ogling that image of Danny. "He strung me along the whole time. I thought that me and him would end up together, and now, right now right this moment he's-"

"He's what?" Tucker asked.

"Probably sucking Dash's dick. Fantasizing about taking it up the ass from the quarterback." She answered. "I bet it makes him hard thinking off Dash roughing him up. Fucking pathetic stuff."

"Well, being bitter about it isn't going to help things. It sure as shit won't solve our problem right now. You wanted to be with him, it didn't happen. Get over it. I wanted to be with Valerie. It didn't happen. Do you see me whining about it? No. I sucked it up and I got over it. You should do the same. This blaming Danny shit is getting old, even for me. Man up, or… woman up and put it behind you. Grow a pair… of… tits and be your own person. Danny is just another boy. You know, just into sucking dick… I guess..."

"Whatever…"

"No, not 'whatever'. If someone were to read or watch the shit you were saying people would want you to get over it. People wouldn't feel sorry for you, they would just think you were bitching. A couple might want to dropkick your head.

"Well no one is reading this. This ain't a fucking fairytale. This is life. This is shit, besides you don't even understand half of the shit I'm feeling."

"It's not like you tell me!" He replied. "You don't tell me anything, dear girlfriend! MAybe I would understand you better, if you didn't just sit around and pout and act all detached all of the fucking time. Goth or hipster, both fucking stink"

"What's there to say?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you could say… 'I'm hopelessly in love with Danny Fenton and I'm just using you to get over it.' -or maybe- 'Tucker Foley, all we'll ever be is friends with benefits' -or maybe- 'Tucker Foley, I don't give a fuck about what you think and I going to keep this baby and ruin our lives forever'." That lovely aesop about the North Wind and the Sun went out of the fucking window. It was argument time and he was going to let his voice be heard

"Somebody's having a testosterone issue today." She retorted. "And who said I want to keep it."

"You won't say you want to get rid of it." He answered back, going tit for tat, point for point.

"I just found out yesterday."

"You know that you knew longer than that. You had an inkling long ago. Your period didn't come weeks ago and you waited before you did anything about it. You've been thinking about this for longer than you want to let on, and don't tell me I'm not right."

"Fine," She huffed, "You're right."

"So you know what you want to do?"

"No."

"You're a fucking hypocrite," He mumbled.

"What was that Tucker?"

"Nothing."

"Oh it wasn't nothing," She started, "I heard 'fucking hypocrite.' And I know you can't be talking about me. Maybe yourself."

"No, I was talking about you."

"Care to explain?"

"As staunch of a supporter as you are of abortion. You are a Planned Parenthood cheerleader. You want them to have a facility in every county. You signed that petition. You wrote the letter to Governor-"

"That doesn't mean that… Look I want the choice to be mine. I want to have an option."

"We've come back full circle, haven't we?" Tucker unclenched his teeth, feeling silly about this whole thing, but still determined to get his wish fulfilled. "To abort or not to abort? That is the question"

"Really, quoting Shakespeare right now? I'm fucking pregnant."

"Yes, we know."

"And…" She trailed off.

"Nothing is going to change if we keep arguing."

"Right."

"So, I ask again, how are you feeling about this. Like percentage wise, what are you leaning towards?"

"That's so abstract, Tucker. I don't know how to classify this stuff. Part of me wants to go to Cosgrove and get it done today. You know, a piece of me know that I can't do this. You can't do this. We cannot do this. We're still kids ourselves. We're still just figuring out what love is ourselves. We still have the same thrill of sex. It's still exotic and new. If we're busy raising a kid, all of the best years of our lives will pass us by. And for what? We'll be spent by the time we're thirty. We would be dealing with a teenager in our thirties. And then what? What kind of kid would be raised? I mean parents who are still in the same generation. Probably have a kid of their own."

"Would you like to be a grandmother by thirty-five?" He asked the question, "I know that at thirty-five I'm not supposed to be bouncing my grandchild on my knee. I'm not supposed to actually have enough energy to keep up with this child. I know I don't want to answer those awkward questions. 'Is that your kid?' What am I going to say, 'No that's my grandson' I know I would feel like shit. I ain't comfortable with being a granddad so soon. You can't possibly want to have that much posterity that soon?"

"NO! No, of course not. And I don't want to go down in history and be known as the whore as Amity. Foley's bike, the pregnant girl. I would be so embarrassed."

"But part of you hesitates," He said.

"Yes, Tucker. You know why? It's because my conscious is eating away at me. Every logical part of me protests, but that visceral part of me, the part that screams out why I do something wrong. It's screaming out in protest that I'm even contemplating termination. It doesn't call me a murderer outright, but it screams. It screams in the silence. When you're not here, and my parents are asleep. It screams in the darkness, Tucker. Right before I close my eyes to go to sleep. It screams louder and louder because this is a person growing inside me. It may only be the size of a bean, but it is a human being."

"Yes," Tucker conceded, "I understand that. But it can't hear or feel. It can't reason. It wouldn't be conscious of the fact that it alive or that it's dying. It doesn't even have any nerve cells. I mean if the pain that it would go through is a concern, the science can assuage your anxiety."

"Science… science… You have the luxury of being able to rely only on science."

"As an atheist yourself, I had thought stopped worrying about that whole pie in the sky God thing."

"I'm not afraid of God. I'm afraid of my own thoughts when I'm alone. As much as I don't believe that synagogue stuff, when you're raised with it, it never leaves you. I keep hearing in my head 'Thou shalt not kill! Thou shalt not kill!'. Religion gets a lot of stuff wrong, but not that. God got that one right. We know that we don't need religion to have morals. My morals are based on reason. And killing this child growing inside me is unreasonable. Totally unreasonable."

"But necessary."

"Morals aren't abstract anymore, Tucker. They're real and they're growing in my belly right now. Right and wrong are so tangible that I can't breathe. It's like being stuck on a ship adrift in the ocean, Tucker. You're stuck there having to consider everything, and there is nowhere to go. Your principles, the things you truly believe in are… they are all you have All I know is that if I if I kill this baby, I would be showing that I'm a huge hypocrite. It would go back on all the things I have been raised to think and most of the things I have concluded as true in my own head. I would just be another phony hypocrite."

"How?"

"I'm a vegan, Tucker. In my heart, in the absence of religion I still feel that 'Thou shalt not kill.' I don't believe in killing anything with a face. How could I be more merciful to an animal, with no emotion, than I am to a person, a living human being. Tell me Tucker: how can I be more sympathetic to a cow, or a chicken, or a fish, than I am to a living human being?"

"Is it merciful to bring a person into the world that neither of us can take care of? Is it merciful to raise a child, who could hear, see, breathe, feel, worry, in a world where his parents are? If they're arguing about him. Kids have a way of blaming themselves for everything. Is it right to make a child suffer through his childhood, with a broken home?"

"What are you saying?"

"Do you think- no, let me rephrase that- Do you know , for a verifiable, irrefutable, unassailable fact, that we would work? Forever, I mean? Or at least as long as this keep would need stable parents?"

"What?"

"Sam, do you think that we could sustain a relationship indefinitely? Would you be willing to marry me, and be attached to me till death, because of one mistake?"  
"Who says that we have to do all of that?"

"Well, I think we do." Tucker actually stomped, putting his foot down, "I want my kid to live in a stable home if you choose to have it. I had two parents at home, so did you. If you care so much about mercy and fairness shouldn't you want the child to get at least what we had. Two parents, some house, same last name."

"What fucking year is this, 1950?"

"No, it's, two thousand and-"

"I know what year it is- but you're thinking like we're in some time warp. Millions of people have raised kids alone or divorced or separated. Why do we have to be together? Like you said it two thousa-"

"And what is so wrong with what I said. Two parents, same house, same last name? What is so wrong with that? People follow tradition cuz it works-" Tucker said.

"Oh!" Sam yelled sarcastically, "Who's the hypocrite now?"

"What?"

She imitated a dumb dude's, mocking what he said "I'm just a traditionalist and the year is nineteen hundred and fifty-seven. I want my girlfriend or wife or whatever and kids to have the same last name as me, and for her to have my dinner cooked when I get home. She'll be silent and won't spend any of my money. She'll only speak when she's spoken to, because, you know, women are better seen than heard. And once she puts the kid to bed, she'll come into the bedroom and suck my dick, because I'm such a man." She changed her voice into a mock crying voice, "But on the other hand, I want her to have an abortion as quickly as possible cuz I'm not man enough to deal with the consequences of me not wearing a raincoat."

"Well, it's clear that one of us isn't mature enough to deal with a tough situation. And, Sam, if you can't deal with this situation. Tell me, and be honest with me- how are you going to deal with a child? How? You couldn't even remember to take your pills"

"Maturity… what a joke. We were both mature enough to do it. We should both be mature enough to face the consequences."

"One mistake, where no one got hurt, should not lead to a lifetime of consequence. Maturity also means that we understand the proper proportions to things. Maturity means we think into the future. Maturity means that you have mercy on yourself and spare yourself agony. But right now, you want to dive head in...dive head into a world of hurt. Where's the mercy in that? Where? One thing that is true: Life is hard and then you die. Is it right that you make it harder on yourself? I don't think so. I'm not a masochist and as goth as you are, I don't think you're a masochist either. Martyrdom, as poetic and beautiful as you may think it is, does not suit either of us. It might fit others, like Danny, like a glove, but not me. No. You know what I want?"

"What do you want, Tucker?"

"I want what normal people want from life. I want to be happy. I want you to be happy. I want to be able to look back over my life and say that the number of good days outweigh and grossly outnumber the bad. I want to be able to say: 'You know, Tucker, you didn't do too bad for yourself.' I know that a kid is supposed to be a joyful thing, not this fearsome, agonizing, anxiety-ridden process. It'l drive me crazy, drive you crazy. We'll drive each other crazy and make each other miserable. And then what this kid would be born to broken up, miserable parents. Having this child will do nothing but make three people miserable."

"I-"

"And I don't know if a miserable life is worth living. And I don't want it for you either." Tucker completed his dissertation, or at least the introduction.

"Who says we'll be miserable? How can you see into the future and know that our lives will be terrible. Who says that we'll be sad for the rest of our lives."

"Who says we won't?" He shot back.

"I can't prove a negative."

Tucker changed his question, "Prove we, us, all three of us will be happy, then. Prove to me that me, you, and the kid will be a stable family."

"Life doesn't have to be happy. This argument we're having right now is proof that life is not always happy and peaceful."

"But the majority of it is supposed to be. And since you broke this news to me. We've been miserable, nothing but miserable. If we can't handle this in the abstract, then what are we going to do when this becomes concrete? You know we're not ready for this. That's a fact."

"What's also a fact is that I am the one who has to do this. I'll be alone in that clinic with my legs in the stirrups as a doctor turns on the vacuum."

"I'll be there when you're done and we can go home together."

"So… you said I have choices. It doesn't seem like it. A miserable life, or a life of miserable thoughts."

"I don't think the rest of your life will be consumed with miserable thoughts. Time is a healer. We live and we forget the mistakes of the past, or, at least, they become less painful. We can run that risk or surely be unhappy with our circumstances."

"We created the bad circumstances," She said, "You and me."

"And we can fix them, you and me." He said gently, kneeling in front of her as she sat on the couch. "Trust me on this. We can't afford to wait. The longer we wait, the more attached you become, the harder this will be."

"It's already hard."

"Then I think we should go and do this without delay." Tucker said, with

"Today?"

"Well…"

"No, I'll tell you what. I will decide by the weekend, and if I want to, we'll go on Saturday. Okay?"

He was at her mercy in the matter. "Okay, but promise me you'll really think about it. And talk to me about things. But unlike how we got to this place, you need to think beyond the moment. Think about us in five years, ten years, twenty, fifty."

"I will think about it, Tucker. I promise I will think about it. And when I'm firm about it, I will call you and tell you immediately."

"Good."

"I don't know how you can be so certain about all of this."

"I don't know how you can be so hesitant about all of this." He answered. "But I know you. You're smart, and I know you'll make the right decision."

* * *

This was a rough thing to write. Please don't try to glean any of my feelings on politics, religion (the existence of God), or my thoughts on abortion from the preceding words. I'm just trying to write a realistic story and I think I portrayed this scene with a reasonable amount of realism. Feel free to review.


	13. Thirteen

This chapter may seem a bit confusing, but this is only about a third (maybe only a fourth) of what I want to get through in this exchange with them. Any confusion will be cleared up as they figure themselves out. Be patient with me.

* * *

Monday afternoon was beautiful, but they were inside and they would not be enjoying it. Neither minded as they had learned to genuinely enjoy each other's company. They were in the basement lab of Fenton Works and Dash was feeling... feeling nervous. That whole ability to see him when no one else could was cool to say the least, but it was scary too. Something was changed between the two of them and this whole thing needed to be figured out, and forthwith. He knew that he was in good health, but this whole situation was so strange. When you start talking about,you know, ghost stuff, health becomes something of a bad joke. Well, nothing was normal anymore. He sat on a chair in the lab and watched Danny as he fiddled around with some objects. Danny also seemed to go into cabinets and drawers and pull out what looked like tools left over from the Cold War. Dash wasn't wrong, Danny did pull out a Geiger counter.

"I… um," Danny started, not knowing where to go with his words, "I'm going to be honest with you Dash. I don't know about what these changes are you're experiencing and it might take some time to figure out. I have to figure out some things too. And I have to let you know some things about ghost energy, Well, first, what do you know about ghost energy?"

"Nothing, not even the basics," Dash answered honestly.

"Okay, it's actually not very complicated," Danny started.

"Okay."

"Ghost energy is like living energy, just in reverse. Humans need to eat to have the energy to live and go on. Ghost energy is produced from within and ghosts need to expend that energy or they will be consumed by it. It's sort of like radiation from the sun. Since I am half and half the energy my ghost half produces sustain my human half."

"Hence you not having to eat." Dash put that together expertly

"Exactly, Dash."

"So, let me make sure I understand." Dash said rubbing his temples, "If you do not keep that sort of balance in yourself… you either are consumed by the excess energy or you consume yourself in need of energy."

"Basically."

"But I mean, even the sun is going to run out of juice one day and die." Dash said depressed at that fact, but knowing he would be dead when it happened.

"Sure, but that's not going to be for another five billion years. That might as well be eternity. And remember I already energy that is flowing out of me has no limits, no bounds. This whole thing is stuck on equilibrium no matter how hard I work or how sedentary I am." Danny explained, "In life and the physics of living, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but in ghost terms that is all energy is. It is made spontaneously and completely used up."

"You lost me now," Dash implored.

Danny knew his explanation before was dense so he tried an analogy instead of a scientific formula, "Ghost energy is like… is like- It's like love. People create it between each other, sometimes they find balance and it never leaves them. It sustains itself and as it builds up, so do the people in love. That is the way my ghost energy is now, balanced out. Alternatively, sometimes people fall in love and fall right out of it. And that love is used up, and the people are destroyed in the process. Does that make it clearer?"

"I understand you." Dash answered. Something in him liked hearing the word 'love' pass Danny's lips. He shook his head wondering when he became so… so 'faggy'. He could not think of a word, but this sensitive shit was starting to bother him. It did not bother him in the sense that it annoyed him, oh no. He was made severely uncomfortable. It's not that he had a problem with the emotions per se. The problem for Dash was one of application. He did not know precisely how to express these feeling.

The visceral ones were easy. A grunt, a curse word would do.

But these higher emotions, sentimentality, adoration, enthusiasm to be around Danny was hard to put into words. His vocabulary failed him. Little did he know the entire English language does too. English did not have words sufficient to express those notions that started to consume him. He decided to sit with these feelings and look them in the eye. He felt that this challenge like the one of pursuing Danny was one that could be met and overcome. These emotions made him weak in the knees. They made him want to be close to his boyfriend. Not sex, just closeness. Not intercourse, just intimacy. Fuck, he had never felt that for anyone before. His intellect never came into the picture when it was a matter of sex.

But this was different and Danny had made it thus. He was not in competition with the feeling. On the contrary, he knew that if he could accept them, wrap them up, put pretty bows on them, and present them to Danny that he would be closer to that goal. The goal, he reminded himself, was to possess Danny and to be possessed by him. To love him and be loved by him.

It still sounded faggy to him, but he did not mind that if it was for Danny.

"I guess this is romance." Dash whispered.

Danny thankfully did not hear him. "Pardon?"

"No, it's nothing," Dash answered. "Now that I understand the facts of ecto-energy, we still have to figure out what's going on with my eyes."

Danny had been staring at Dash and snapped back to reality, "Right, um… that's why we're here."

"I mean," Dash said, realizing that he was being checked out, "I don't mind ogling you till the cows, a.k.a my parents, come home."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Dash answered "I just hope, for real, I'm really as easy on the eyes as your staring suggests."

"Yes," Danny blushed, "You're fun to look at."

"So are you, but I'll have some fun thinking about you later." Dash was really lewd when he wanted to be.

"Give your right hand a rest man, you right with it, you- just give it a rest." Danny said.

"I'm sure a part of you will be replacing my hand soon." Dash said.

"Are you always going to be so crude?" Danny asked faking indignant, as he looked in the furthest drawer from Dash.

"Yes," Dash said, "You look at me and think dirty things. I look at you and say dirty things. And don't you dare say you don't like it."

"Fine, you got me." Danny emerged from his side of the room with what he was looking for in hand. It was an ophthalmoscope (that thing the doctor uses to look into your eyes). It was Dash's eyes that interested him. Well, you know, it was what Dash's eyes could now do. "I just want to look into your eyes and see if they're the same as everyone else's." He approached Dash.

"Oh, you want to play doctor, huh?" Dash answered. The double entendres were not going to stop, it seemed. (Hell, it'll make for fun reading.)

"I'm not playing." Danny put in a forceful defense. "I want to figure out why you can look at me and the sun and be totally fine. So stop playing." Danny's voice was stern and Dash liked it.

" _Kinky_ ," Dash whispered to himself. "Fine, I'll stop. How do you know all of this stuff anyway?" He sat up in the chair. "I mean you're not going to blind me or anything."

"My parents taught me all the medical stuff in case we need to.." Danny trailed off.

"Need to what?" Dash asked.

"In case they need to dissect any ghosts," Danny's voice became low again, scared. He almost shuddered at the thought.

Dash understood, "I'm sorry things are like that with your parents."

"Me too," Danny said, "Now sit still."

Dash obeyed as Danny approached. He had to will himself not to pull Danny into his lap. He looked ahead as that bright light invaded his vision on the right, and then, after a time sufficient to inspect, invaded the leftmost portion of his sight.

"Dammit." Danny said.

"What?"

"They're normal."

"That's good." Dash answered.

"Well," Danny put the eye scope down on the desk, "It means that nothing is wrong with you biologically, but maybe your spirit stuff is…"

"Is what?"

"Is…" Danny could not find a way to say it, so he started gushing words "Look I have to try something and.. please don't freak out, but if I could do this maybe I can see what it is. And I swear that it won't be as weird as it sounds but… like I said if we try this thing-"

"Danny."

"I swear that if you want me to stop, or if you don't want to start we don't have to do this, But I think maybe we would find out about what-" Danny was hyperventilating and blushing hard at this point

"Danny."

"I swear it won't be a thing if we both-"

"Danny, what is it?"

"Did I explain overshadowing to you?" Danny asked timidly,

"No."

"Well, it's sort of when I fly inside someone and can take control of their body."

"Oh?"

"Yes, sometimes," Danny added, "Sometimes it's a tool when I'm fighting other ghosts. I only do it when I have to. I don't like to put civilians in danger, and I don't like controlling them without their consent. The good thing is that they don't remember what happened when I come out of them. It doesn't appear like they have a gap in their memory either. It's a smooth transition as if nothing happened. Well that's most people."

"And me?" Dash asked pointing his thumb back at himself.

"You," Danny continued, "You are a special case. I have to assume that you'll be like all the other people I've overshadowed, but there's no knowing."

"Could I die?" Dash made the question simple.

"I am going to level with you Dash. I don't know," Danny's voice was light, but serious, like a whisper, "But I don't think it's very likely. In all ways your a superior specimen of good health and fitness. I don't think I could harm you even if I tried."

"Okay, I'm a risk taker, I like to get my adrenaline pumping through this body. I say: let's go for it." Dash said feeling comfort in his physique and trust that Danny knew what he was doing. Even with Danny's expertise in this "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"No."

"Okay. I trust you." Dash said relaxing. He realized it sounded like something else. He even thought to himself: " _Please be gentle."_ These sorts of thoughts never materialized before this boyfriend thing had started. When they did, he usually suppressed them, or took out his frustration about having them on Danny. It was so strange, most parents in this part of the country were worried about their kids getting hooked on pills or meth. Dash was addicted to Fenton. He was shameless, brazen Danny junkie. Maybe having Fenton inside him would be the ultimate high. The best part, he couldn't overdose.

"Okay…" Danny said, "Going ghost!" That was followed by the usual transformation, which Dash watched again without bother. "Okay… Dash are you sure you're ready? I won't start until you're ready."

"I can take it," Dash said between gritted teeth. They were gritted because he was anxious. Anxious-excited, not anxious-nervous. "I'm ready for you."

Danny went intangible and flew into Dash without delay.

Here is what they both felt.

For Danny, he felt like he was engulfed in gentle warmth. His spine tingled with electricity. The hairs on his body stood up in absolute exhilaration. He felt as if he was pulled into a bear hug and that he fit into the embrace like comfortable, worn shoes, or an old baseball glove. He felt a special heat around him that could only be called love. He felt like Dash had opened the door into his heart, into his intellect. The body that had consumed him did not use him up. Rather, it enveloped him and made him feel that nothing could hurt him. Dash's body was more than just a shell, more than anything he overshadowed before. Dash's soul, it seemed, entreated entrance into the ghost boy's. Danny did not relent, as it was not a power dynamic. Dash's soul wanted to mingle with his, and Danny gave enthusiastic consent.

On Dash's end, the feelings were just as strong. Dash felt filled up. Those feelings of inadequacy faded away. Those feeling of emptiness that he felt in the night when he cried himself to sleep were gone. Danny made him feel complete. Dash never felt like a whole human being, just a shell who was good at football. That feeling left him. He felt happy and satisfied in himself for the first time in his life. If this is what it meant to be happy, Dash was prepared to sacrifice it all. He would give it all to Danny if this was the warmth he could feel. Tender sentiments were as nothing to these feelings. Danny was the one for him. He felt as their souls melded that Danny got to know him. Silently they exchanged every secret, every quirk, every piece of intellect became communal. Every feeling became a note in the melody of their love. They were as counterpoint, singing to and for each other and only each other. They meshed and became one entity.

They both felt that this was a supernatural occurrence, and Dash, still being a mortal was almost overwhelmed by awesome power of this experience. He never wanted it to end, but he knew that he would burst eventually. He would be a hot mess when it was over, but that was the name of this game.

It felt like about three hours of ecstasy when they separated. Danny flew out and immediately resumed his Fenton form. Dash was still in the chair. Both of them were out of breath.

"Is that what it feels like to be overshadowed?" Dash managed to inquire between hitched breaths. "Cuz you can do that anytime."

"No, Dash, that is not what it feels like. Usually both sides feel nothing, but that-"

Dash finished the thought, "That was the most intense experience of my life."

"Mine too, and I've died before."

"So, what just happened?"

"I think, if that book is right, I think- I think our souls just mated."

"What?" Dash asked, before simplifying the terms of reference back to that of a normal teenager's understanding, "Do you mean our souls just like… had sex?"

"It's not that simple, but kind of. Our energies just connected in a way that doesn't normally happen. I mean, I have a way of testing it here in the lab." Danny pointed at what looked like

"How" Dash asked, "Round two of that?"

"No, but ummm, to test it, you kinda have to…" Danny started stuttering again, "I swear I'm not trying to be a perv-"

"What are you talking about? Just spit it out." Dash demanded, having finally caught his breath.

"Okay, fine… but don't blame me for getting embarrassed. To test this, you would have to strip to your underwear."

"Is that all?" Dash wondered what was bothering him about that fact. He was naked in the showers constantly. "You act like you didn't look at me in the showers after gym.

"You knew?" Danny was blushing fiercely.

"We are both masters of the sideways glance." Dash said, "And the downward glance."

"Guilty as charged." The short answer

"So, anyway, how does this test work?" Dash asked.

"Well, my parents came up with a way to detect ecto-energy. You know how they find radioactivity with a Geiger counter?"

"I'm not radioactive, am I?"

"No, but ecto-energy is like that, and don't worry it does not hurt your cells. The more contact someone has had with a ghost the more ecto-energy they have. My parents came up with a unit that measure how much ecto-energy or spirit energy one has inside."

"What did they call the unit, a degree?

"A Fenton." Danny answered," Dad named the unit, the Fenton. Nothing modest about my parents."

"Does everyone have some of this or is it only accumulated when you're in contact with a ghost or spirits or spirituality, or whatever?" Dash said standing up.

Danny appreciated Dash's effort in trying to learn the ins and outs of this somewhat complex science, "It varies from person to person. Most people have only about two Fentons. Preachers, priests, monks have about a dozen Fentons. People like my parents, working with ghost energy on a constant basis have about a hundred. People who have been overshadowed have a temporary increase to just about a hundred and fifty Fentons."

"And how many do you have, you know since you're dead and all."

"Five hundred thousand, which makes sense because a pure ghost is one million. Since I'm half, I got half."

"So you want to see if I'm more ghost oriented than the norm. If I have more than a hundred and fifty, that means that I have an affinity for you that goes beyond me be attracted to you in -you know- the normal human way."  
"You got it."

"Fine. No need to wait, might as well get your " Dash said removing his shoes and unbuckled his belt, dropping his pants. He left his socks on.

"I thought you would want to, you know do this behind a screen." Danny was averting his eyes.

"Why?" Dash asked, "You've seen it all, already." Dash took off his letterman jacket and the shirt under it.

"Okay."

"You can look if you want. It's all yours anyway." Dash said gently. "Do I need to take off my t-shirt too."

Danny ripped his eyes away from the clean tile floor of the lab and looked Dash in the eye. "Yes, you do, I have to touch the device right to your chest."

Dash was basically naked in front of Danny now. He was wearing boxer briefs which showed his 'fruit of the loom' quite well. Danny went over and grabbed the Fenton counter.

"This device is going to show me a number based on how many Fentons you have in you." Danny walked over with the device mentioned earlier. He stopped feeling embarrassed about looking at his boyfriend. In fact the bulge in his jeans showed that he was absolutely delighted to scope him out.

"Why are you pressing it into my chest?"

"That's where your ecto-energy is because that is where your heart is."

"Oh my God," Danny said when he looked down at the number on the digital display.

"What?"

"You're reading is 100." Danny sounded astonished.

"Well that's high, but since I'm almost always within a few feet of you…

"No, Dash, you're reading is 100,000."

"Wait, are you sure it's not picking up some of your energy? I mean you're like the atom bomb of nuclear energy."

"No, it only tells based upon what it is touching." Danny answered.

"So, what does that mean?"

"Dash, I don't know how to say this but… um... I think… I think… somehow… someway… you might have some powers. Like more than being able to see when a ghost is around."

"WHAT?" Dash was astonished. "What? I mean… like… HOW?"

"I don't mean being able to fly and whatnot. Maybe you can. But Dash, you're more than just a human. You're special. I already thought you were, but you're more special than I thought."

"Cool. I mean freaky… I mean… what the fuck? My parents are normal. Well not normal, but they're definitely not supernatural in any way. My dad sells insurance, my mom buys everything else. I can't be special. I just… I think I figured it out."

"What do you think it is?" Danny said.

"Well," Dash reckoned, "everyday when I pushed you against those lockers, and I've been doing it faithfully for God knows how long. Every single time, my hand was on your chest or our chests were rubbing. Just this morning we were talking about how we close to each other we were."

"But, I've fake made out with Sam and hers was never over fifty. And we were swapping spit."

"Go intangible." Dash had an idea.

"What?"

"Go intangible and invisible."

Danny obeyed.

"Not only can I see you," Dash pondered, "But," He reached out to where Danny was, "I can touch you."

And touched the intagle teen, he did.

Danny immediate returned to normal. "Holy shit."

"Ghostly shit, more like"

"The only things that can do that are other ghosts." Danny piped in.

"Or maybe a ghost's keeper. Danny, maybe that book was right."

"Maybe."

"It said, ' _Fight the good fight and love the soul you possess.'_ " Dash was starting to piece some things together. "I don't know if I possess your soul, but the fact that they just connected like that and the fact that I have some of your spirit energy must mean something."

"That book said 'love', Dash. 'Love'. That is the scariest word, Dash. My friends said that they loved me, but the second they found something they didn't like, one of them abandoned me and the other assaulted me. My parents love Danny Fenton, the straight, one hundred percent human kid. They would want to destroy the real me."

Dash took a step closer to Danny. "I know me too. My so-called friends love the asshole. They love the front I put forth to protect my feelings from the doubt and all that crazy shit that teens go through. My parents too love Dashiel Baxter, the straight, one hundred percent macho kid, who doesn't cry or have anything to cry about."

"Maybe, we are the same." Danny said, closing the distance. "Maybe that felt so good for the both of us because we need to get something out of our system."

Dash took another step forward, they felt the others radiant heat. "What do you think is stuck in our system."

"Tension," Danny sort of whispered. He wrapped his arms around Dash's neck. Remember Dash is only wearing his boxer briefs.

"How about we break it?" Dash asked, seductively.

TO BE CONTINUED


	14. Fourteen

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER 13

* * *

….Dash took another step forward, they felt the other's radiant heat. "What do you think is stuck in our system."

"Tension," Danny sort of whispered. He wrapped his arms around Dash's neck. Remember Dash is only wearing his black boxer briefs (and socks).

"How about we break it?" Dash asked, seductively.

"No," Danny said, looking down, something coming up in his psyche. "Sorry, I just don't think I'm ready yet."

Dash pouted, "You don't have anything to apologize for."

"Um," Danny stammered, his voice cracking. He didn't know why. "I do. Please don't think I'm a dweeb-"

"I already do," Dash stated conversationally, almost glibly, looking down into his boyfriend's obscenely blue eyes, "But you're my dweeb. My cute twinkie dweeb."

"Well, as your dweeb," Danny chuckled out of nervousness, not able to make his voice level out, "Can I… Can you… could you like- hug me?"

"You want me to hug you?" Dash asked, hoping that it was true.

"Yeah." Danny said, blushing for the umpteenth time that day. He looked down at the floor, his eyes welling up. He did not know where this was coming from, but the damn dam had burst and it was going to flow. "I know it sounds all stupid, but I- When you hug me, I feel good, like I think everything is okay. And I'm sorry… It's so selfish."

"Stop apologizing," Dash said, "You never wronged me. You never have, and you never will. I want to be here."

"It's just that," Danny wrapped his arms around Dash and nuzzled his face into his bare chest, "I know you're ready for the physical stuff… and I want to be ready for you, but I'm scared to death."

"What are you scared of?" Dash asked. "Me?"

"No, not you. I'm scared of… I don't know when I'll be able to… you know… with you. It's not you, it's me. I just become afraid when I think of us, going all the way. Totally vulnerable. You being totally vulnerable to me. I don't know why you would trust me."

Dash wrapped his arms around Danny and pulled him into the embrace. Danny's jeans were brushing on black boxer briefs. Dash's arousal grew a bit, not obscenely big, but noticeable. Semi. Dash spoke, "I trust you. I trust you enough to let our souls become one. I trust you because you're honest, you're real, you're the type of person I want to be. I don't want nor would I accept being a hero. If I had your powers, I would keep them to myself. But you've destroyed your life to save the rest of us. I trust you because you're the only person I have ever met who is trustworthy."

"You trust me? Danny asked.

"Yes, of course I trust you. And I trust you to know when you're ready to go to the next level. I want you to be ready. If that takes ten days, ten months, ten years, I don't care. I want you to want it too. I don't just want my first time to be nothing. I want it to be special for the both of us. When you're ready, like really ready, say the word and we can go there. I want you to be excited and enthusiastic and completely horned up, not just going through the motions. That's not what we mean to each other. You mean thing to me I can't describe. "

"Why are you so good to me?" Danny whispered into Dash's abs. Dash felt a bit of wetness and knew that the boy was sobbing in his arms. That ripped a hole in Dash's heart. "I'm selfish. I don't deserve-"

"Dammit, Danny, you do deserve it," Dash hugged him tighter. "You're not selfish. What you do for me, what you do for this town is the opposite of selfish. I don't care what you say, you deserve love." Dash had realized it. He said that word. That scary word. 'Love'

"What?" Danny said, almost kissing Dash's pecs. He lifted his head and looked into Dash's eyes, they peered down into his.

"I said you deserve love." Dash said, "If anyone deserved it, it would be you. You're good-natured, and strong, and loyal, and smart, and cute, and really hot, and I can't stop thinking about you. I just try and think of ways to make you happy. You being miserable makes me miserable. You being sad." Dash's voice was starting to crack, and his face was beet red, "You being sad makes me not know what to do with myself. It kills me inside. I can't stand to see you cry."

At that moment, a single tear escaped his left eye and rolled down his cheek. Danny shuddered. He had never, ever seen Dash cry before. It was so wrong looking. It was like the sun rising in the west, or snow on the Fourth of July. Danny did not know how he was going to do it, but he made a promise. He promised to himself to rectify it. Not really for Dash, but for him. He could not tolerate Dash being upset. It was wrong and he hated himself for causing it.

He generally hated himself.

Why?

Calamity seemed to follow him. He hated himself for the peril his presence caused to those around and about him. He hated that, in the macro, he had the ability to protect and defend people. In the micro, in the relationships he could call personal and close, he was a failure. Sam and Tucker, notwithstanding the great resentment as he had for them now, were always the first casualties in the big battles. The people whom he loved the most were always in the most danger. The people whom he wanted to protect the most always were the first ones to be kidnapped or have some dark magic done to them. But this was different, Dash inadvertently made it thus.

You see, and he is not very proud of these facts, he thought of Sam and Tucker as… as almost expendable. His judgment had not always been so harsh on them, but he always believed these things. They were partially responsible for this whole thing, daring him to go into the portal. They helped in the creation the obligation, they had to accept it. They did, although they were understandably scared and reluctant. Danny did not know if he was right but he sensed that their participation was rooted in duty to the people of Amity Park, USA rather than loyalty to their friend. Their friendship ended when he died. That of course sounded a normal notion, but he was extraordinary. He asked much of them, but they, Sam and Tucker, had given them, the whole trio, much. To whom much is given much is required.

He accepted those facts, those unsavory facts, with a grimace. He leaned into the hug and seemed now to be speaking directly into Dash's heart. Danny pressed his ear into Dash's heart. Dash'h heart was pounding fast, steadily, and excitedly. Unfortunately this was not the pleasant sort of excitement Danny thought Dash deserved.

Danny spoke in sobs, barely able to piece the sentences together over the gasps, "You're putting yourself into grave danger being around me. I don't want you to get caught up in this. Every second you're next to me- there's someone, something- out there plotting to destroy me. If they don't know now they will soon. They'll know that the best way to get to me is through you. I don't want you to get hurt. I want to push you away- push you away to save you. But I can't- I want you too much. I need you around me too much."

Dash said it again, "I'm here because I want to be here. And I don't care what you say Danny, but I'll always be here."

"I don't want you to let me go." Danny was in full flow and nothing Dash could do would staunch it, "Please don't leave me."

"I won't." Dash said.

"Promise me." Danny sniffled.

"I promise I'm with you all the way."

"Can you stay the night?" Danny asked. "I don't want you to leave."

"Of course I'll stay." Dash said. "And in the morning, fly me over to my house and I'll get some fresh clothes."

"I keep sending you all these double messages." Danny admitted, "I hug you and I push you away. I want you near me, and I want to keep you away. I want you so badly, and yet I don't want to you to be near me."

"I'm safe when I'm with you." Dash admitted, "I feel secure only when you're next to me. You're my rock." Dash had to consider what he just said. He, the powerhouse of the football team, the most muscular and robust person he knew was dependant on Danny. Dash knew that, ironically and as a result of his ghost powers, Danny was stronger than him. He just never thought that he could feel so strongly about anybody else. He understood that this type of love was unique to Danny, but the intensity of this feeling was not matched by an affinity, even the simplest affinity to anything else. Hell, when he was with Danny even the simplest thoughts football faded into oblivion. And he had more love for that game than he had for his parents combined. That was a sad fact, but a true fact nonetheless.

So, Dash had to reckon this within himself. His love of his parents stemmed from a sense of obligation in the biblical sense. That commandment about honoring his mother and father was the reason he felt a connection to them. They were absentees most of the time and when they did avail themselves they were distant. So, he could use the word love towards his parents but the word for his actual feeling towards them was something less clear. It was ambivalence. He could not decide whether or not he liked them or hated them. They gave him a good life, a very comfortable experience in American consumerist terms. He had a nice room, a nice car, anything he wanted was able to materialize in front of him. Money was no issue.

He hated them for everything else. His father was a pig and Dash hated to think that he was taking the same path. His father curdled him everytime he saw him. Dash saw the thing he did not want to turn into. He saw everything he hated about himself. Dash was hell bent not to turn into a drunk, a cheat, a womanizer (well, he didn't have to worry about that one). Dash was rebelling in this embrace (more on that later), and embracing not only Danny, but the fact that he felt for Danny. He knew he owed it to himself, but now he did it for something else, someone else.

Danny, for his part in this ongoing hug, wanted to protest vigorously, most vigorously. He was in a moment where every piece of him wanted to shout out, to snap and push Dash away. He did not want Dash to be caught up in the insanity that was his life. He wanted Dash to be able to step away for his own sake. Dash was now the target. He was the target of people who hated Danny and what he represented. To those adversaries who confronted Danny on philosophical grounds as well as in physical battle, Danny represented freedom. Danny Phantom was the torch that lit the freedom of the world. The ghosts who wanted to enslave mankind, though few, were ruthless. They knew that to win, they would have to snuff out the flame of freedom. They knew that could not deprive him of oxygen. They also knew that they could not snuff him out, or cool him with water. The only plausible way they could demoralize him was to cut off his supply of fuel.

He knew this next fact and they knew it better. Danny's fuel, his drive, his prompt in life was passion. Danny had stopped feeling passion a long time ago. Thankfully, nothing big had happened to take advantage of that flickering in his flame.

But Dash…

He presented a problem.

Dash was a new supply of fuel. Dash was a new passion, a true passion. Danny was scaring himself, petrifying himself with the thoughts that brought forth. Danny could not help it, but he was falling quickly. He was falling deeply, hopelessly, embarrassingly, ludicrously in love with Dash Baxter. That flame that was flickering like a candle about to go out. But now that Dash Baxter had hugged him, now that he nestled into Dash's bare chest, that flame came back alive. It started as orange, it turned to red and now the torch put out white hot flames that lit the world. The light had never been so strong and his eyes were still adjusting to it. Going from groping around in the dark with a flickering, fluttering light to viewing the world in the supreme light of the sun was a fearful process. He almost lost himself in the brilliance of the light. Danny needed Dash from that moment onward.

Danny needed Dash and there was no way to go back. But Dash was acting as the fuel that kept him going. He hoped he wouldn't burn Dash up in the passion. And that. That is why Danny could not kiss him. That is why Danny could not get physical. He was afraid that he would go too far and chase him off. Dash said he was ready, but Danny was certain that he would go too heavy from the start. He was operating under this new flame, under new dynamics. He had to adjust himself to these new warm feeling and know how to apply them. He wasn't there yet. And he loved Dash too much to subject him to raw, uncontextualized passion. Sex without love behind it was meaningless, Danny thought. And Dash was worth millions times more to him than just meaningless pleasure. Dash deserved, he thought, the warm emotional feelings he had to share along with the hot physical portion.

Again, he was scared of them, those feelings. He needed to go through them with someone. At least, he craved someone's physical presence. He craved Dash's touch. Dash's touch stilled him in a wobbly world. Dash's hug was stable as his surrounding wobbled apart. He needed that stillness to think. He needed Dash to be there as he muscled up the nerve to express his affection in the verbal, visceral, and carnal.

Even still, they were engrossed in each other's contact. Dash felt that he was at a sever disadvantage. He was damn near naked and Danny was fully clothed. He felt that he deserved it for the discomfort that he caused Danny over the years. Well, he was not all that uncomfortable.

They did not know how long they embraced.

* * *

"The pizza is will be here soon." Danny proclaimed putting the phone down. They were in the living room now, totally removed from their experience downstairs. That's what they thought, but that was not the case. Their souls had come together, so had their bodies in the chastest way. They both may have wanted to ignore it, but it would not last. Something would have to give, sooner rather than later. Dash was wearing a t-shirt (a black wifebeater) again, and a pair of (clean) sweats that he had stowed in the trunk of his car.

"Good," Dash said awkwardly, "I like pizza."

"Me too," Danny didn't know what to say, "That's why I ordered it." He realized how rude that sounded. "Sorry, I'm nervous."

"It's okay. I am too."

"Why are we so nervous? Danny asked no one.

Dash answered, "Well there's something that we both want to say but can't."  
"Well, what won't you say?" Danny asked, starting to pace in front of a standing Dash.

"What won't you say?" Dash asked, feeling something in him rising, (No, not his dick, you pervs.)

"Come on, I asked first."

"Fine," Dash said, "I think that we are not being completely honest. About what we're feeling we mean. I mean when I said 'love' I know something happened between us. We kinda wiggled into each other, like we trembled. I know it wasn't just me."

"No," Danny admitted, "That... happened."

"So what does that word mean to you, and me, and us? It scares me to death."

"Why?"

"I can't remember the last time someone said it to me. I can't remember what it feels like to hear it."

"Me neither," Danny confessed, as he stopped pacing. "My parents are so caught up looking for… for me that the emotional connections don't happen. I don't know if they mean to do it, but it hurts. A lot." He sat down on the black leather couch, and

"I don't think mine mean it either, but it does make you... It makes you cold. It sorta makes you not know how to express yourself. I find myself either screaming or crying. Like I have so much inside and I don't know how to express it." Dash knew that Danny had to be special. Dash wouldn't even dare to think these things alone, let alone vocalize them.

"Well, I'm out of tears anyway," Danny half-laughed. "I cried all over your chest."

"But that's just it, we were crying together. People who are friends don't really do that often, people who are simply dating don't do that. One cries, the other comforts, but it's not usually both people doing both things for each other?"

"What?" Danny was only putting about half of the puzzle together.

"I mean, Danny" Dash sort of exhaled, "We're something special. It's not just because of you having powers or whatever all this ghost energy flowing through me is. You, Danny Fenton, you mean a lot to me. I never felt this way about anyone before. It's more than just like. I more than like you…" Dash couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"You do?" Danny understood why the word 'love' could not find a way to pass his lips.

"I really do. They say you get to know someone inside and out. I actually have and what I saw was beautiful and you're outside is easy on the eyes too."

Danny reached out and grabbed Dash's hands. "What's inside you is beautiful too, Dash. You talk a good, no, a great game but what is inside you is sensitive and loving and caring. You are the ideal physical being, and I haven't found an ugly thing yet, but knowing you inside gives me hope. Knowing that someone can be so alluring inside and out gives me hope. Knowing that that man only has eyes for me makes me happy beyond anything I had ever experienced."

"So, you and me. We _are_ special."

"Yes."

"Supernaturally special?" Dash asked.

"Yes. I would say so."

"So what are we feeling, you know as people?" Dash asked.

"Since when you did you get into the probing questions?" Danny answered, not scolding him, but interested as to what made him this way. Maybe Dash wanted to hear the word 'love' before he could say it himself. Danny had no doubt that Dash was feeling love. He also had no doubt that Dash was scared of his emotions the same way he was scared of being found it. Admitting love would make the possibility of being outed more real. It would make his sexuality too real. He knew that Dash was comfortable with him, but not with being gay.

"I guess that I… I don't know what to say."

"Then say anything." Danny said, "I won't judge you."

"What does all of this mean? Where will it end up? I mean things are all happy now, but I have a feeling in me that something is gonna happen. I'm paranoid about it. Not us, I mean stuff that's not in our control."

"That's life, Dash." Danny said.

"Or, in your case, death."

"Life is full of uncertainty and so is death," Danny replied, "I am the living and dead breathing proof of it. Two weeks ago I could not have imagined you being in my house. Or me holding your hand. Most things are up to chance, so I grab the things I can. I grab the real things. I cling onto the things I know and can verify."

"And what can you verify?"

"The earth is round. I speak English. I live in the United States. That's the easy stuff."

"Well, what else then?" Dash clung to every word.

"I have a boyfriend. He's blond and handsome and has great muscles. He has a great heart and a nice smile. He knows how to make me feel better when I'm down. He's a great hugger and he's a bit of a perv. And I know how I feel about him, but I don't tell him because I think he's scared to hear it. I think he feels the same way, and I think if he would just say it he might feel better."

"What do you think he should say?" Dash distanced himself from this and was thankful that he could. Dash thought, " _He's so considerate. That's just another reason I love him."_ Dash shuddered, he said the word. Now all he had to do was vocalize it.

"I think he should just tell me what he feels because I know I feel the same way."

"And what way is that?" Dash asked.

"Dammit, Dash, you are the most frustrating person alive." Danny fake screamed.

"I know I am." Dash responded.

They fell into a comfortable silence. The two of them were coming closer to saying it by degrees.

* * *

"Um, are you sure?" Dash asked, still full on pizza, as he sat on the edge of Danny's bed. "I mean I don't mind. You just caught me off guard with the request is all. "

"I wouldn't ask you to stay over and then put you in some some other room. What good would that be? I asked you to stay over for… um… selfish reasons. I get so lonely in this big old house and…"

"I understand. I'll sleep with you." Dash said.

"You make it sound really pervy. I just want to cuddle up to someone and it might as well be you considering you're my boyfriend I think you should have first dibs." Danny laughed, knowing that Dash would get serious.

"And only dibs."

"Of course." Danny liked the instant jealousy. He put his hands on his chest to emphasize his next point. "I mean this isn't a commodity to be bought and sold on the trading floor."

"Well, if I remember correctly, GhostTwink88, when you were camming, you definitely were very, very needy. Lord know how many credits you asked for online. What did all of that 'money' go towards?

"You'll find out in due time." Danny was cryptic.

"To-"

"Not tonight," Danny said quickly. He half laughed, still flattered.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to stop making jokes like this. Especially when we're actually going to go to bed." That last sentence rang nicely in Dash's head, but not in a pervy way. He liked the idea of being that close to Danny. He just hoped that his natural physiological response wouldn't ruin it. Dash didn't know that Danny was worried about that too. Danny almost canceled the whole thing, but it was too late now.

" _Dammit Danny,"_ Danny chided himself inside. " _What are you doing to yourself? What are you doing to him? Having him in bed like this? Tempting him like this… fuck. Just don't touch it, whatever you do… don't touch it."_

Dash's thoughts were someplace else, " _Don't get hard. Don't get hard. Don't get hard…"_

* * *

The lights were off. Dash was flat in his back staring at the ceiling. It was dark, unnaturally dark in Dash's opinion, but that was probably just his nerves talking. He watched Danny come into the room. Dash had already brushed his teeth, thankful that toothbrushes were sold in packs of six and that the Fentons had extras. He had also showered with Danny providing him with an extra towel. Dash put on the extra clothes he had from his car. Danny had done the same in addition to making sure all the doors and windows were locked and was just about finished in the bathroom. Dash had half a mind to snoop around and look for… he didn't know what. His better judgment prevailed and he stayed put.

Danny opened his own bedroom gingerly, switching off the light simultaneously. He didn't know if Dash was asleep yet, so he proceeded with caution, floating over the floor rather than walking on it. He put his legs back to use when he hopped in. The weather in the afternoon was warm, but it seemed to cool down almost poetically as night fell. It was as if everything was coming together to have Danny cuddle up to Dash. It was cool enough to sleep under the covers, but nowhere near cold enough to justify turning on the heat.

"I'm awake." Dash said noticing his boyfriend's accommodations.

"Oh, okay."

Danny got under the comforter and was stiff (not like that) at first. Then he pushed past that, not letting this opportunity pass and rolled onto his side. Now facing Dash, Danny rested his free arm on Dash's chest. He was able to get around him, in fact, it was a perfect fit. Danny also nuzzled into Dash. He also wrapped his leg partway around Dash's. The result was that his crotch was squarely on Dash's leg. He was thankful that his underwear and Dash's sweats provided something of a barrier, protection if you will. It was much like the a hug except now they were horizontal. "I hope this is okay…" Danny wanted it so much to come out like a question, but it didn't. He liked this sensation too much to give it up.

Dash did like it and wrapped the arm closer to Danny around the ghost boy. This only made Danny cuddle up to him closer. "It is very okay."

Danny made a pleased sound that was somewhere between a squeal, a yelp, and a moan. Whatever the sound was, Dash liked it. It was cute. It was also visceral, and those types of sounds turned Dash on.

"I wish we had been doing this sooner." Danny said

"Me too. I don't really mind this break in routine."

"What do you mean 'don't really mind'?" Danny asked, sensing hesitation.

"It's nothing."

"No it's not," Danny replied. "Dash, I can read you like a book, even in the dark."

"You're gonna regret asking this."

"No, I won't." Danny's claws came out, so to speak. He could be jealous too.

"Well, I usually clear the pipes." Dash replied.

"What?"

"I usually… you know…" Dash suddenly shy. With Danny's hands all over him mentioning it made everything too real.

"You usually what?" Danny said into Dash's chest, inadvertently breathing onto the letters nipple. The warmth and moisture was not helping with the growing boner Dash was trying to conceal. It also didn't help that they were talking about masturbation, but that was secondary to trying to get Danny to understand him.

"You know…" Dash tried again.

"I don't." What was throwing Danny was that fact that Dash would have ordinarily said it exactly what it was. It threw Danny off the scent and the ghost boy's mind was nowhere sexual.

"Come on… you know what I'm talking about."

"No, I don't and if you don't spit it out, I'll ask you to leave." Danny lied.

Dash called the bluff, "You wouldn't do that. But just promise you won't freak out."

"I am wrapped around you. The time to freak out has passed." Danny said dryly.

"Okay… fine. I jerk off." Dash said as if it were a dirty secret.

"Oh." Danny said realizing, "OH!"

"Yeah," Dash was blushing furiously at this point and Danny could feel the additional warmth from Dash's face and chest.

"Is that all?" Danny said, "I mean so long as it was about me." The ghost boy was crisp and concise in that sentiment.

Dash did not think it possible, but he was flushing even harder. "It is usually."

"You want a few minutes?" Danny asked. "I mean I can leave and let you relieve some tension."

"Wait? What? You would?" Dash was in near hysterics, "I mean, no. No. I can control myself for one night."

"Good to hear." Danny found the nipple on the far side of Dash's chest from him and rubbed it gently with his hand through the fabric. Dash was in full panic mode now.

"What are you doing?" Dash asked between sharp breaths.

"This is called payback, Dash Baxter."

"Mmmm," Dash moaned, his voice rising a couple of octaves, "For what?"

"For that goddamn obscene phone call this morning, making me walk into school with a boner." Danny answered. "I couldn't get rid of that thing for over an hour."

"And are you going to give me blue balls?" Dash asked, in that very moment, realizing Danny was grinding into him.

"It's only fair." Dash removed his hand, "Good night."

"Fuck." Dash responded moaning into the room.

"Language," Danny faux-scolded him.

"You can't do this to me." Dash was weak to Danny's wiles.

"I said good night, Dash." Danny whispered into Dash's chest. "Good night and I don't have bedbugs,but I might bite, maybe nibble on this hard nipple next to me

"This is some cruel shit, Fenton, but I still..." Dash's voice was a murmur. "l love you." Dash had finally managed to say the word. It figures that it would taking Danny torturing him (gently) to say it. It figures that Danny had to pin him down to hear it from his boyfriend (and maybe soon, lover). Dash meant it with all his heart. He meant t with his entire being. He was proud he could say it and exhausted from the laborious effort. He had said a lot and done a lot on this Monday in September. He wanted to hear Danny tell him the same, and let his body, mind, and soul have some rest.

"I love you too." Danny whispered back to Dash, finally

They both answered the call of sleep, wrapped in each other's arms, wrapped in each other's love.

TO BE CONTINUED


	15. Fifteen

The chapters may become more infrequent. I'm back in school and that comes first. I will always warn you if I think there will be a problem. That being said, enjoy Chapter 15! Thanks for all the followers and favorites!

Enjoy!

* * *

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER 14

* * *

Monday the eleventh had rolled over into Tuesday the twelfth about an hour and a half before and the cool and quiet of the night had settled upon the town. Unfortunately for Dash, his dreams were not as pleasant as his company or as tranquil as his surroundings. Everyone had nightmares from time to time, including Dash and Danny. This one was different though. It felt real, realer than real. This was because the circumstances of his nightmare were well within the realm of possibility. The scenario was more than probable too. The facts were completely true, and unchangeable. Dash was scared to death and paralyzed in the now-cruel grip of sleep. Danny, who was always a light sleeper, was woken up by the sound of Dash talking, murmuring in his sleep. Danny listened not knowing what to do. In fact Danny did not know at first that it was a particularly scary dream for his boyfriend. The phrases that came from Dash were normal, even pleasant, at first.

"No… he's my boyfriend," Dash whispered in his sleep. "I love him a lot. I'm serious."

Danny hugged up closer to him in response. He was endeared to hear that, at least in the self-conscious realm of sleep Dash was able to say it freely. Danny was pleased to know that Dash was committed to those emotions, even if he had trouble saying them outloud. Dash's reticence to express himself made him even more adorable and lovable to Danny.

"I love him… and that's that." Dash muttered, eyes still tightly shut. "It's 'bout our hearts not his parts."

Danny gained a great amount of confidence in the conviction of that statement. The consequences of the tone had not hit Danny yet. The ghost boy did not hear the concern, the trepidation in Dash's voice. He did not consider who Dash would have been talking to. Danny contented himself with these facts: Dash was in love with him. He was in love with Dash. They were in each other's arms. Those facts were enough for him to proceed happier and freer than he had ever dared.

"No… there's nothing wrong with me." Another murmur, now less pleasant, from Dash. Danny sat up careful not to wake Dash up. He looked down at Dash's face. Dash's eyes were watering and tears were streaming down his cheeks. The alarms started to ring in Danny's head. It was not that Dash was the 'men don't cry' type. It was that Dash was in anguish, whatever this dream was something traumatic was happening.

"LET ME GO!" Dash screamed in a hushed voice, his eyes not opening yet. "I don't wanna die…"

"I can't breathe." Dash's voice was small, like a broken person, a broken soul. His voice sounded like his essence was being choked out.

"That's enough," Danny said outloud. He grabbed onto Dash's body and started to shake him wildly, "Wake up! DASH! WAKE UP!"

Dash snapped into wakefulness and sprung straight up. He looked around, petrified that he wasn't at home. He looked over at Danny and pulled him into an embrace. Dash started crying, sobbing like he never had before. Sobbing for years of pent up fear. He was a quiet crier, only taking gentle gasps, inhaling Danny's scent. It occurred to him that he was having the breakdown he had always feared. This was the breakdown that he hoped and prayed would never happen, but it was happening now. The specter of paranoia and justified fears concerning his life had corporealized. It did so figuratively and Danny made all his fear tangible. This was the best possible place for a breakdown, his arms wrapped around someone who loved him, the real, scarred, scared, and sensitive Dash. Danny's arms reciprocating the gesture around him made him feel that he was being embraced, held. That was all Dash wanted to feel, embraced not for his football prowess, but for his very 'self'.

"Dash, what's wrong?"

"He said he would kill you." Dash gasped between the words, "He said he would keep you away from me."

"What?"

"He was strangling me… He said he would kill me for loving you…"

"Who?" Danny asked, "Tell me who?"

"My father, he said he wanted to kill me. He said he was going to take me away and have me 'fixed'. He said he was going to take me away from you." Dash was hyperventilating at this point, "He said he would beat me straight."

"It was just a dream, Dash." Danny reassured him. "It's not real."

"Are you sure?" Dash whimpered in a way that only doubled the concern Danny had for him. Dash was crying from his core. This was what Danny saw inside Dash that was gnawing him. Dash's soul had looked like the sun to him, but the luster was faintly tarnished by little bits of blackness, sunspots if you like.

"I promise I won't let your father hurt you, and he can't hurt me."

"Just… don't go." Dash whispered into Danny.

"I won't." Danny responded. It hit Danny like a ton of bricks. Dash needed him the same way he needed Dash. Dash needed all the same things he did. Dash needed not only to feel like a protector, but he needed to feel protected. So did Danny. Dash wanted to be able to feel safe enough to explore and express his emotions. So did Danny. Dash wanted to love and be loved, to consume and be consumed. So did Danny.

"I need you," Dash said, his tears starting to fall less frequently. "You complete me. I can't be away from you or..."

"You make me feel whole too," The crying they had done together made them feel lighter. The fear and anger melted away when they were with each other. Danny felt Dash begin to relax as his mental anguish began to subside. Dash was embarrassed. He was not supposed to do all of that yelling and crying, but he couldn't help it. That dream popped into his head. It did not feel so much like a dream as it did a vision into the future. He didn't want to think about it. At least he did not see it every time he closed his eyes. That was the saving grace. He only saw the blackness of his eyelids. He only felt Danny's arms about his frame and his arms about Danny's.

They held each other for what felt like an eternity. Danny quietly talked him down from his nervousness. The thing that built them both up was telling how much they loved each other. Weeping was enduring this night, but Danny promised that through their love, joy would come in the morning.

"Why you love me?" Dash asked.

"I love you because you're you. I can't picture life without you. I can't be without you. I can't go a second without thinking about you. You make me feel warm inside. I actually look forward to living because you're around. I love you because, no matter how shitty you think you are, you're a gem. You're a keeper. A man who will let you into his soul and have one as beautiful as yours is a keeper. You're sensitive and smart, and strong. You're a survivor and versatile. You put up with my bullshit. You are the only person, I've ever felt safe with. I know that you want to show me all the ways you can love me. You're so willing to love, and I'm so selfish but you love me anyway. "

"You're not selfish, hugging this big loser right now." Dash sobbed into his chest.

"You're not a loser. You my boyfriend. My boyfriend who does nothing but make me feel good. My hero. My champion.

* * *

Dash woke up first in the morning. After his freakout, he realized that he was more vulnerable than he would like to admit. Daring Dash got scared sometimes. Sometimes he wanted to cry. He had cried himself to sleep many times before, but he usually explained it away.

"It's just stress. It ain't connected to any emotion." He had thought to himself many times. The time for emotion seemed to come late in the night for him. It was natural because there was no stimulus. There was nothing to look at in the dark, nothing to hear, nothing to touch (except himself). He was left to his own thoughts, and apparently those fears were made manifest through nightmares. Last night was not the first one, but it was the most intense. It felt more like a vision than a dream. In other words, he knew that the situation, when it did occur, would unfold exactly the way he saw it. But he pushed those thoughts away.

He concerned himself with the pleasure of the here and now. The pleasure of having his boyfriend next to him. They had changed position in the night and now they were spooning. Dash, of course, was the big spoon. He had avoided some of the usually problems with this position. He wasn't eating Danny's hair and his arm wasn't numb from his circulation being cut off. The problem he encountered here was not so much a problem as it was a natural result of… well the stimuli. Dash was standing at attention down there, throbbing. Danny's ass was pressed against it. The smaller one was still asleep, breathing gently and steadily, but he wriggled instinctively into Dash for the warmth. That wriggling did not help Dash keep his calm.

Dash did something naughty in response. Dash used his free hand, which was positioned over Danny, to explore his boyfriend. He was gentle because he did not want to wake him up. Dash ran his hands up and down Danny's chest and abdomen. The muscles were perfectly formed according to what Dash had seen. Seeing was believing, but touching is knowing and appreciating. He started around Danny's nipples. They were stiff in the relative cool of the early morning. Dash marveled at the perfect proportion of his pectorals. They were firm and fit perfectly in and about his hand. Danny's body was a lean, mean muscle machine. He had all the strength he needed without the bulk. Dash was figuring out the secret to his boyfriend's warmth. Even when asleep, Danny was almost passionately hot to the touch. That's why snuggling up to him was comfortable. Danny's body was like a furnace. He wondered, thinking "If his outside is this warm. What is he like inside?"

His cock twitched against Danny's crack. The still-sleeping ghost boy, leaned into it gently, as if by instinct. Danny arched his back a bit, only serving to accentuate his perfectly formed ass. "He's sure as hell trying to seduce me.

He put that thought away. They weren't there yet. Soon, but not yet. He was still hoping for his birthday in November, or Christmas. It was only mid-September, so he knew that he had to wait. He was willing to wait. The temptation was always there. The temptation, at that crucial moment, pressed itself against his cock.

Dash ignored this, and focused on the sensation he was getting from his hands. Danny was wearing a tee-shirt that hugged him and Dash focused on the form of the muscle beneath. Dash's hand ventured lower still and came to rest on Danny's abs. Those too were firm and warm to the touch. They were the perfect size for Danny's frame. Dash pressed into the flesh lightly and Danny leaned into his boyfriend.

Dash wanted to venture lower. He sat up a bit, careful not to disturb Danny and saw something great. Danny's dick was standing at full attention, jutting out straight from his body. It was more than a tent, maybe a teepee. Dash thought that it looked imprisoned by all those clothes. He felt his hand drifting lower, reaching the elastic of Danny's pants. He wanted so much to go underneath, but he didn't. He couldn't. It wouldn't be right. He knew it would come one day, and that the longer he waited the more he could savor it. Dash removed his hand from the nether regions, back up to Danny's chest, a more chaste place. He lay back down and snuggled in. He could listen to the gentle sound of Danny breathing all day. That did not end up being the case.

"Mmm, fuck me harder, Dash" Danny murmured, still gripped by sleep. Luckily for Dash, Danny was having a happy dream.

Dash was silent, not knowing what to do with that sentence. His mind was racing though, "Fuck, fuck , fuck. Why won't he do this when he's awake? Just say the word, Danny, and we can… fuck, I can't wait… I'm pent up and all he wants to do is wiggle his ass into my cock… I just want to cum… please Danny, let me cum… whoa that was some BDSM shit… maybe that's what he's into… that whole payback thing… kinky… fuck, just let me cum soon, Danny… please, for me."

"Cum inside me," Danny whispered.

"He really wants it. I'm ready for it."

Dash looked up and saw that the sun was starting to cast some orange rays through the windows. As much as he hated it, he knew that they had to get up. He shook Danny gently, and whispered, "Hey, GhostTwink, we gotta get up. Danny, wake up."

Danny made a noise of protest as his eyes opened. He immediately felt three things. Firstly, he fet Dash gently nudging him back to the land of the living. Second, he felt like there was a warm pole against his ass. Third, his sweatpants were entirely too tight. He looked down and saw the bulge and instantly tried to cover himself.

"You couldn't hide that thing if you tried." Dash said, noticing the gesticulations. "And do you actually think I would mind looking at it?"

"No, but it wouldn't want to…" Danny added, "You know… make you uncomfortable."

"Stop it," Dash quickly put an end to the modesty thing, "I have been thinking about sucking you off for months, and if I had a problem with your body. Trust me, I wouldn't have my arms wrapped around you right now."

"And your dick wouldn't be trying to eat through our pants right now, trying to impale me." Danny's voice was still sleepy and husky. Dash thought he sounded really sexy.

"I say that you should let him in," Dash said, "I'm sure you have plenty of lube in here."

"Possibly."

"You'll let me in?" Dash asked a two-parter, "Or you have lube?"

"Yes," Danny answered cryptically.

"Fuck you," Dash chuckled.

"Soon, Dash, soon," Danny answered.

"I demand that you fuck me." Dash said. It was half serious, half begging.

"Oh," Danny said, still facing away, "Somebody's a little pent up." I haven't touched this thing since like Friday and it's Tuesday. Do you know how hard it is to keep my shit together? With you wiggling your ass into my dick and you… You moaning for me to fuck you harder? What are you trying to do to me?"

"Oh, was I talking in my sleep?" Danny was embarrassed.

"You want me to cum inside you." Dash confirmed for him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to… I didn't know I was talking out loud."

"No, I'm sorry," Dash answered, "I don't mean to press into you like that. It's just that, I like you. I like you and I want you to feel good. This whole self-denial thing doesn't suit you. I mean, there's nothing I can say to change how you think. But you deserve some good things for yourself. You deserve it. I know you give up your whole life to protect this shitty little town. You're whole life is sacrifice. You should have some fun sometimes, and I don't just mean sex. I'm still trying to take you on a date."

"And you have to get more serious." Danny answered, "I'm not calling you self-absorbed. But you're no longer a civilian. You can't just do what you like, when you like. In associating yourself with me, you have to sacrifice. Your safety, you life, your time is in constant jeopardy. You have to keep alert. I... um… since we understand the abilities we both have, I have to train you. But you're right, I owe you a date. You owe me your time for training."

"Training?"

"You have to learn to use the tools of the trade. A Fenton Thermos™, the Specter Deflectors, all of that will be yours and I will be teaching you how to use them. And don't worry, I promise it won't be as boring as school."

"I can't be bored if you're the teacher. So, Mister Fenton, when am I going to get my date?"

"How about Friday?"

"My parents are due home on Friday. Yours too."

"Shit." Danny realized, "You're right. How about Saturday, and we go far, far from this town and spend the day together."

"I would like that, but we can't go too far from here. This town needs you. The day you leave would be the day things fuck up. The day they would need you most."

"You're right." Danny replied.

"I'm sorry." Dash replied, "I was acting crazy, and crying like a bitch last night when your shit is much rougher than mine."

"You weren't acting crazy, Dash. You were being vulnerable with me. It was really nice. It just means that you trust me."

"I do trust you. And I love you." Dash said sincerely.

"I trust you and love you too." Danny replied.

Dash then proved that blondes weren't dumb. He came up with an incredible theory, "You know how you told me that when you change back between Fenton and Phantom and then back to Fenton. You know how you said that like, it works to make you all cleaned up like you showered and your clothes are clean."

"Yeah?"

"What would happen if you transformed back while I was touching you? I mean, if I were like hugged up to you, do you think that I would change clothes too?"

"Dash, I don't know." Danny replied, the hesitation evident in his voice. "Ghost science is like physics. It's more theory than concrete. I don't know what will happen. I cannot guarantee that you will be alive after this, but you're always so willing to try."

Dash rolled over and was now flat on his back, looking at the ceiling, "A hundred thousand Fentons has to mean something."  
"I don't want you to get hurt."

"You overshadowed me and I didn't die."

"But that wasn't normal. This might actually kill you." Danny answered.

"I'm not afraid." Dash said, "You already said that I'm an eager idiot."  
"I don't want a man to die in my bed, at least not like this." Danny joked. "Two dead men in bed makes for hard explaining."

"Come on, let's just try it."

They stood up together. Danny obliged him. He was trying something new, something adventurous. His life was such, that experimentation was scientific not sexual. The looked in the mirror above Danny's dresser together. They were standing like that painting, American Gothic. The only differences were that Dash was not holding a pitchfork, but had his arm around Dann. And, thankfully for them both, they didn't look as severe. They were happy to be with each other.

"Going ghost!"

When the light subsided, they looked in the mirror. There was Phantom, of course. But Dash had changed. His height and build remained the same. There were some differences though, big ones. His hair had turned black, like Danny Fenton's, and he had a tan like Danny Phantom. It was the same length and same style, but went from the color of wheat to that of a raven's feather. Dash's complexion tended to lighten quite a bit in the winter months but it had a definite limit. Dash looked almost Scandinavian here. He was not cream, not eggshell, but he was approaching it. He was like porcelain, almost glistening. His usual beige color disappeared and he became Danny's color. He even had a few cute freckles, and his cheeks were rosy. He took a step closer to the mirror and saw that his eyes had turned bluer, though still a color that humans were capable of possessing. He took a step back and looked at his attire.

It was strange to him him because it was so familiar. He was wearing a letterman jacket, like always and it felt the same. Except, now it was black with a grayish platinum white being the secondary color. Also, it was more form fitting and showed his splendid physique to full advantage. It had none of the Casper High identifiers. He opened it up to see if his tee shirt was different. It was.

It was black. And it had the white platinum DP logo plastered on the front, right in the middle of his chest. He looked down at his jeans, They were no longer blue, but black as well. They were black jeans, faded a bit and tight. His shoes were of dark gray canvas. He lifted up his pants from the bottom. His socks were black too. And in white, the DP logo in gray.

"Oh my God," Danny said, "Look at you."

"I know right."

"This is awesome. I wish we could figure out what this is now, but we do have to get to school." Dash said running his hand through his hair half expecting it to feel different, or for some dye to come off onto his hand. Neither happened,

"Ok, might as well transform again," Danny replied. "And this afternoon, you're coming back over.

The rings of light wrapped around them and disappeared.

There they stood in their own clothes. Dash's appearance returned to normal, hair color, skin color, but not eye color. His eyes remained limpid and blue, nearly glowing same way Danny's glowed green. He put that thought behind him, glad that his hair was back to its normal yellow hue. Danny hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Dash's cheek went red, and he felt like he would never wash it again.

"What'd you kiss me for?" Dash asked, mesmerized.

"Because I have my boyfriend back. And you smell really good, like leather and peppermint. I'm glad I have you back; the black hair was nice though," Danny opined.

"I ain't dyeing my hair."

"Not even rainbow?" Danny teased.

"When you dye yours rainbow, I'll do the same."

"Deal." Danny said, straightfaced (as opposed to gayfaced? Or bifaced? That second one sounds like two faced though).

"What?!"

"I'm kidding," Danny said, "Just your pubes then?"

Dash had the zinger this time. "Too late, it's smooth down there."

Blushing from Danny, "Me too…" The ghost boy trailed off trailed off.

"Wait do you think that since we're all clean and we brushed our teeth with this transformation- Do you think that it gave us a fresh shave too?" Dash didn't wait and started to unbuckle his jeans, now blue.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Danny gesticulated, "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, I ain't gonna flash you." Dash reassured in the curtest way. "I'm just gonna look down there and check.

"I guess, I might as well too. Since when were you such a scientist?" Danny opened his pants too, though not with the gusto.

"Since I put together that Fenton and Phantom were the same person," Dash said looking down and opened his underwear, "Yup," Dash said, now using his free hand to touch the smoothness of his crotch. "Smooth and clean down here. He cupped his balls, delighting in their heaviness, thinking that they seemed a bit bigger. "Balls are smooth too."

"I hope you're going to wash your hands." Dash said, half horrified, yet vaguely aroused.  
"Why?" Dash chuckled, bringing his right hand up and sniffing. He smelled nothing, of course.

"Cuz, you're touching your balls!" Danny didn't hear the joke in Dash's tone.

"Well, they're clean." Dash contended, "Verifiably, supernaturally clean. I mean, if you think about it, my dick stays in its little underwear house all day. Whereas-"

"Whereas? You are scientist!" Danny commended him.

Dash ignored it, reaching his peroration… "Whereas, my hands are coming into contact with hundreds, maybe thousands of surfaces everyday. If anything, my dick and balls are cleaner than my hands. When dudes go to the bathroom, they should be washing their dicks not their hands."

"Wh…" Danny was dumbfounded.

"I know, you don't have to say it, my logic is correct." Dash pivoted, "So, is everything smooth down there."

"Y- Y- Yes," Danny was still baffled. "And my balls are too. And my ass is always, I don't even have to check that."

"Good," Dash said, "The very last thing I want is to get in pubes caught between my teeth. No amount of floss would make that right again." Dash spoke as he put himself back together. He zipped up, buttoned up the top, and refastened his belt. He started to leave the room and Danny sorta followed him, removing his hands from his pants. He held them up, not bothering to formally fasten them, yet. Danny stopped at his door as he watched Dash continue down the hall.

"Where are you going?" Danny asked.

"To wash my hands, dude. I just had my hands all over my junk. I'm not some sort of savage. "

Danny stood there in the door, laughing his balls off.

Dash was grinning at himself in the bathroom mirror, proud that he could finally make Danny laugh.

* * *

Fifty-three followers, thirty-three favorites. Thanks so much for reading. And I know you guys wanna tell me how you feel about what's going on. I don't bite (unless, you want me to, lol). So please, please, please, leave a review for me!


	16. Sixteen

This chapter is strange, but it establishes some facts that are necessary for later chapters.

* * *

"How are you feeling today?" Tucker implored her sincerely, "I mean on a scale from one to ten."

"Today, I'd say six, maybe a five." She answered, putting her afternoon books into her locker. "And please don't use this as some excuse to argue with me. I'm not in the moo-"

"I promised you space to think about it for yourself." Tucker interrupted, "And I meant it. You're smart and I'm certain you'll know what to do. And besides it's entirely too early for our whole day to be ruined relitigating the same facts and opinions. You are in charge and I'm okay with that."

"Thank you…" She said closing her locker, almost slamming it "...for trusting me, I mean. I don't know how you're so calm. I'm screaming inside right now. I don't know how you're holding it together."

"Me neither," he answered. That was a partial lie. He was shaking in his boots, completely terrified of the future, "But there's absolutely nothing to be gained from losing our heads in this situation. That whole 'Keep Calm and Carry On' thing is keeping me sane right now."

He reasoned that it was like sitting in the electric chair. He was strapped in and the time was almost right. The executioner was wearing his rubber gloves. Tucker was focused on the red telephone, hoping, praying (to a God he didn't believe in), that it would ring. He wanted it to ring and for the governor to stay this execution. That was how he felt. Instead of this dread lasting the few minutes before the execution, it was a lasting thing. It was constant and stole his appetite, robbed him of his sleep, and left him bereft of peace. It was if some cruel person flipped his life upside down and wanted him to suffer for something. Fatalistic thoughts consumed him, more like chewed him up and spit him up. They must have been especially rough to cope with, considering he rejected the existence of anything strong enough to predetermine events. At least in a supernatural sense.

He was not completely wrong in believing it by that. He realized that it wasn't some almighty author in control of his life, but Sam Manson. Sam was the one who was going to determine his future. She held in her hands whether or not he would proceed smoothly into adulthood, or have adulthood dropped into his lap. He would rather the first option. He did not see how keeping the baby and the baby were congruent. In fact, he saw them as completely incongruent. They were as antitheses. One would be him walking on dry land determining where he could go, the other would be him drowning in an ocean of responsibility, stress, and commitment. He hated to see things so stark, so black and white, but that's how he saw them.

He had been made to think this way fighting all these ghosts with Danny. One was either a friend or a foe. Every battle was either won or lost, no draws. Things became binary, or at least that was the only way to look at them. The shading and nuance that so readily colored reality disappeared for him.

Sam, who was holding his hand, felt differently she looked at this moment in her life as being on the beach. She was walking barefoot in the sand. She just could not be sure of her footing. She was not drowning by any means, but she could walk onto land and wade into the ocean. If she waded into the water, she knew that the rip tide of child-rearing in her youth would pull her in. She was a strong swimmer and knew not to fight the current, but swim parallel to the shore. She knew that if she had the baby, that Tucker, said baby, and she would be fine. She could give it up for adoption, though that option was particularly unsavory to her. She also knew that her state had those Safe Haven laws. She could go to any police station, hospital, firehouse, or even to the courthouse. That idea was also anathema to her as well. She knew that if she kept the baby to term, she wanted to keep the baby for life. He or she would know that Samantha Manson was the mother and Tucker Foley was the father, period.

She also knew she could go onto dry land and get the abortion. This option was not an abhorrence to her, but she knew that her conscious would bother her. She didn't know how long it would last, but she knew that her sense of decency would feel bruised. She knew that she would feel like a murderer. She knew that the baby wouldn't feel it, or perceive it. It would be quick, a fraction of her day, but a moment, a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of her life. She still knew she would be killing a human being. She knew too, that she could continue to live her life in relative peace. She would be a normal teenager, running away from danger, going on dates when she wanted. She could grow into everything that Samantha Manson could be.

She was realizing that her liberalism, her progressivism was a lot harder in practice. She was pro-choice, but she would not wish this choice on anybody. She was pro-choice, but in a strange way, she wished that she didn't have it. She wished that it could be clear, obvious, what to do in this situation. But freedom was a scary thing. It was the type of scary that she had to live under, being free to do whatever she wanted with her body, even if an innocent soul was intimately involved.

They arrived at their common homeroom and detached hands. He held the door open and let her in. He looked at the profile of her face, realizing that she was wearing no make-up. He prefered her this way. He skin was actually a very pleasant complexion. She may not have felt well, but she was a fine thing to behold in his eyes. It sounds silly, but he really had never noticed it before. He never beheld how pretty his best friend was.

"You look nice," he whispered, a bit nervous,

"Thank you." She blushed a bit. His voice calmed her.

The last names Foley and Manson were quite far apart in the alphabet, but remember Amity County was still doing an experiment. People were sat in their classes based on their first names. Samantha was almost always followed by Tucker. There were no Steves or Timothys. Sam sat in front of him near the back of the room.

* * *

"Hey Dash!" Paulina sat next to him in the lunchroom. He had to snap back to reality. He was busy thinking about Danny.

"Oh, hey," Dash came back to reality, "What do you want?"

"Rumor has it that you're dating that Fenton dweeb."

"WHAT?!" Dash asked. His mind was racing. He swore that all he could here is an air raid siren. He really was about ten seconds from hurling all over her. Knowing him, he wouldn't be embarrassed. In fact, as soon as he stopped retching, he would probably start laughing his ass off.

"Yeah… I know and to think…. They think you would date her. I'm so much prettier. And I have a better personality too"

"Oh… yeah," He sighed pure relief, "You are definitely prettier." He could hardly convince himself that he meant that. He did actually think that Jazz was prettier, much prettier. And Danny was just fucking too sexy for words.

"You bet I am. So… are you going to invite me to the Halloween Dance?"

"Halloween? It's September twelfth!"

"So what? We have to coordinate." She ignored him completely, "I'll be Cleopatra and you can be Matt Anthony."

"I think you mean Mark Antony."

"Well whatever… so I have a website-"

"No." Dash said.

"Oh, you already have a costume, very good." She said steam rollering him.

"No."

"You're going to have someone make one?" Pauline asked, "That's a good idea too. I mean Greeks didn't wear anything but bedsheets."

"I sure he was a Roman."

"What? Are you turning into some sort of nerd or something?"

"No, but I know that Mark Antony was a Roman, not a Greek. And I'm not going with you. Find someone else to slave around."

"Fuck you, Dash," She said mostly playfully, "When are you going to stop playing hard to get?"

"Playing hard to get?" He repeated it, an idea coming to his head.

"Yes, you're the hottest single guy in the school and you act all aloof. You're like a… like a….

"Like a what?" Dash asked?

"Like a hipster."

"Hipster?" Dash started laughing, "You think _I'm_ a hipster? You're out of your mind, Paulina"

"Might as well be. All the girls in the world want to go out with. Half the girls here throw themselves at you all day, everyday. Hell half the guys are too. And you? You just sit there and look all spacey all day, like you're contemplating capitalism or something else. I wish I could get into that head of your Dash Baxter. You are the most interesting man in the school."

"What are you talking about? Did you take your pills or did you take too many pills?"

"See… right there. You're all funny, but all you let the world see is this rough, detached dude. Cool without wanting to be. You're a hipster."

"Good to know." Dash responded.

"See you soon." She grabbed her stuff and got up, "I gotta head to class and I think your fries are getting cold."

* * *

Friday, September fifteenth dawned spectacularly clear and cool outside the Fenton's place.

They were in Danny's room, Dash's bed not having been slept in since the preceding Sunday night. He had no dreams that night that he could remember. He woke up first, flat on his back with Danny's head pressed onto his chest. But that's how most nights were, boring, but restful. He would share a bed with Danny to make him feel this rested. He was sad, knowing that this would be the last opportunity, at least for now, to sleep (actually sleep) with him.

Dash heard a buzz on the bedside table. He looked and saw that it was Danny's phone. He saw that it was Tucker. He put the phone down, not bothering to read it. He got the urge to delete it. There was no need for Danny to have to see Foley again. He left it though. That was not his decision to make. Danny would well have been justified in remaining hurt in that instance. But it was Danny's text to read. He left it alone.

"Wakey, wakey." Dash ruffled the covers to wake his boyf up.

"Mmm. leave me alone," Danny mumbled.

"No," Dash answered, "I won't leave you alone. Never."

"Fine, if you want to play like that." Danny sent his hand down below and found something warm to play with. "Ooh what's this?" Danny asked.

"You know damn well what it is."

" _I do not,"_ Danny protested, and it almost sounded sincere. "I don't know why there's a warm salami in my bed. Why are you eating in bed?"

"What?" Dash was a bit confused.

Danny tugged roughly through Dash's underwear. "Then, Dash, why is this salami in my bed?" He tugged again.

Dash took a sharp breath. He still wondered why Danny like to tease him. This whole thing was fun, maybe this is what Danny was into. That edging and self denial stuff never appealed much to him, but when Danny did it, it was hot. He supposed this was the softest form of that BDSM stuff that all the porn site inevitably steered him towards. "Mmngh, it's not a salami," Dash choked out. All of this neglect of his cock seemed to make it that much more sensitive. He promised Danny control of where and when and how the sex would be, and Danny seemed quite the expert (or experv).

"Well, this sure as hell ain't a Slim Jim." GhostTwink replied, "So, okay, I'm sorry for yelling about the food in bed. So, why do you have a flashlight in bed." Danny asked making gentle strokes up and down the rod. "Oh my God, were you using it to peek at my body while I was asleep?"

"Mmmngh, you gotta stop doing this to me-"

"Ok," Danny let go.

Dash's cock throbbed from the cruel neglect. It felt as if he was being built up and torn down every morning. Danny always managed to get him closer to the edge, without tipping him over. It was like Danny was exercising him… It clicked in Dash's head. Danny was trying to build up his stamina. The technique was working. In the beginning, Dash would have blown his load at the mere thought of Danny touching him this way.

He started, then and there to plot his revenge.

" _All I need to do is go to the drug store and… you think you can do this to me Fenton… Don't worry, I'll take care of you."_ Dash smiled deviously.

Danny noticed it, and his eyes widened. He knew that he was in 'trouble', so to speak. "What are you thinking?" Danny asked, letting his excitement show.

"You'll see."

"Aren't you going to tell me anything?" Danny asked.

"No." Dash answered.

"And," Dash said, fiddling around under the covers. He found what he was looking for, "I bet the thought of not knowing it has you hard as a rock." He grabbed Danny's throbbing manhood by the base, through the shorts. It was slightly thicker than his. He grabbed the throbbing dick in a sudden, yet gentle manner. Danny yelped and jumped up. "That's more like it." Dash said.

All Danny gould do was gasp in response. He almost came from the contact.

"Now, look here Fenton," Dash said, resuming his normal voice, "I literally have you by the balls right now." Dash palmed the lower half Danny's shaft, while reaching up with his index finger found the little dot of precum that formed in Danny's shorts. He made little circles using that sweet clear liquid as natural lubricant. "Now that I have your undivided attention, I have something to say to you."

"Mmhmm." Danny shook his head.

"You can't keep playing with me like this." Dash now started to whisper. "I know you like your hands on my big cock, but I believe in fair play. You were taking advantage of my kindness, Danny."

"N…"

"So," Dash removed his hand, "I'm going to get you back."

"That wasn't it just then?' Danny asked almost exhausted.

"Oh, no, Danny. You still owe me a date." Dash said. "My folks might be back in town tonight, but we can do something. Something quick, so we can back to Amity Park if we need to."

"But just Tuesday, you were saying-"

"I know, but I want to take you out and spoil you."

"Please don't. I hate formal stuff." Danny responded

"How about just a movie?" Dash suggested, relieved that he didn't have to get gussied up.

"I would like that."

"How about that big cineplex in Bedford? We could just blend in. And it's twenty miles away. No one'll know. We'll just be two people just going to see a movie together."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

* * *

Autumn was making herself known and many of the trees were starting, just starting to make their transition to red, orange, brown leaves. There was a chill in the air, and as such, jackets were now completely justified. Dash wore his letterman (the normal red and white one), and Danny wore a jean jacket, not buttoned. They walked into school at the pre-planned separate intervals. Danny had not looked at his phone, not even to check the time. The phone had become something of a vestige to him. The person with whom he needed to communicate was off limits during the day. Dash was the only person he needed to talk to.

He had put his phone on silent and 'Don't Disturb' mode after Sunday. No need to talk. No need to hear the echoes of his ex-friends.

Little did he know that Tucker was panicking on the other side of town in his bedroom. Tucker was panicking and did not know what to do. This was the most dire situation he had ever faced. Most people, if they found themselves in this set of circumstances would call it a crisis. Tucker called it the apocalypse of dread. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He could not breathe. He was hyperventilating, but no air was getting to him. He felt as if he was drowning in liquid fire.

He was pacing his room, in his pajamas, almost making grooves in the floor beneath him. He had texted Danny several times.

Tucker: Hey man, call me, its urgent

Tucker: i'm real srry abt what i did last friday plz call me, i need ttty

Tucker: i know u r still mad at me, but this is an emergency

Tucker: SOS man SOS

Tucker: Call me when you can man

Then, he left a voice message.

" _You've reached Danny Fenton. I can't talk right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back when I can."_

Tucker's voice was wild and petrified, "Danny… uh… I know like you're still mad at me, and I'm sorry, but I um… can we talk. I'm not gonna tell you over the phone. You think you can meet me at my house today. I mean uh… if we… I just gotta talk to someone who knows both of us. It's big we can't let our parents know. I'm in trouble man," About here is where the tears started, "I'm freaking out man. I'm gonna fucking die. Call me man."

That heavy phone call had thus been stored on Danny's phone. He continued his day, blissfully unaware of the shit happening across town.


	17. Seventeen

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER 16

* * *

…[Danny] had put his phone on silent and 'Don't Disturb' mode after Sunday. No need to talk. No need to hear the echoes of his ex-friends.

Little did he know that Tucker was panicking on the other side of town in his bedroom. Tucker was panicking and did not know what to do. This was the most dire situation he had ever faced. Most people, if they found themselves in this set of circumstances would call it a crisis. Tucker called it the apocalypse of dread. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He could not breathe. He was hyperventilating, but no air was getting to him. He felt as if he was drowning in liquid fire. If he did not know better, he could have imagined that this was what death felt like.

He was pacing his room, in his dark blue, loose fitting pajamas, almost making grooves in the floor beneath him. He had texted Danny several times.

Tucker: Hey man, call me, its urgent

Tucker: i'm real srry abt what i did last friday plz call me, i need ttty

Tucker: i know u r still mad at me, but this is an emergency

Tucker: SOS man SOS

Tucker: Call me when you can man

Then, he left a voice message, a desperate, grovelling message.

" _You've reached Danny Fenton. I can't talk right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back when I can."_

Tucker's voice was wild and petrified, "Danny… uh… I know like you're still mad at me, and I'm sorry, but I um… can we talk. I'm not gonna tell you over the phone. You think you can meet me at my house today. I mean uh… if we… I just gotta talk to someone who knows both of us. It's big we can't let our parents know. I'm in trouble man," About here is where the tears started, "I'm freaking out man. I'm gonna fucking die. Call me man."

Tucker looked down at his phone. He checked the text messages again. None of them had been read. Something in the back of his head told him that Danny would not be ignoring him intentionally. He knew Danny too well for that.

 _He knew him too well._

Tucker and Danny had had big fights in the past, but the latest one was different, certainly. Tucker had never gotten physical with Danny before. He had never gotten physical with anyone before. But precisely, a week before, he had embarrassed Danny. Tucker had sunk to a place that he hated. He was ashamed of that stupid stunt he had pulled only a week before. Danny being gay was not of great importance in the main. Fuck it, in the back of his head, he knew it. Danny was always a little… different. Tucker knew that it wasn't bad, but different. Danny was not a swishy child by any means. However, Tucker always detected that Danny's sympathies, considerations, and fondnesses would differ.

Danny had always had a sense of right and wrong. He had a fierce perception and belief system that centered on justice. He would not call Danny an advocate, as Danny, even as the ghost boy, hated every second of being in the limelight. Fenton and therefore Phantom was the type to hear about a problem and try to put it right silently. Tucker had admired that, and still did. He was a bit deflated, to say the least, that Danny felt it necessary to withhold that information though. Maybe Phantom's wish for discretion should have been another sign to him. He knew that he could be trusted to keep it safe. Again, and he stressed this to himself endlessly, Danny being gay was not an issue. The issue was the lack of trust he perceived in not being told. Tucker would readily admit that it was not his right to know. But he felt… he felt snubbed in the worst way even if Danny had probably told him of that reality, many ways, without words.

Danny had trusted him to keep him safe. Danny had trusted him with the secret of his death, subsequent resurrection, and inevitable ghost fighting. Danny had invested in him, what he thought were his deepest, most crucial secrets. In return Tucker had given his secrets, and time, and effort. Tucker had bled, sweated, and cried behind Danny being hurt fighting all sorts of adversaries, from ghosts, to his parents, to the government of the United States. He had lost sleep, forfeited peace, abandoned hope, commitment, and those natural instincts of self-preservation in the pursuit of justice with Danny Phantom.

Tucker had given so much of himself in the quest for right that he almost lost himself. He didn't feel like Tucker Foley; he regarded himself as a sidekick. He didn't mind seeing himself as the helper of the savior. His name would be firmly inked onto the pages of the Danny Phantom 'gospel'. He did, at all times, feel himself an equal to the boy who insisted on saving the town. Equality, he reasoned further, meant trust between them. Betwixt them, there was supposed to exist, a certain rapport. Rapport, according to him, required honesty. Objectively, he held up his end of the deal. There had been nothing not told to Danny, and if there was, Danny would only have to ask. Tucker, for the longest, had thought that the same was afforded to him.

But, it wasn't.

Danny had hid that information from him and it made him feel cheated. He felt cheated of the trust he put into Danny. He felt robbed of that feeling, that tenuous feeling, that he was in the know. Danny had held back, when he had not. Tucker felt like a fool and a target. He had accepted that fact that he was a target long before. He would even go so far as to say that he would die for the town. The thing that had changed was that Tucker realized his commitment to the cause was built upon an omission. The foundation was not bedrock, it was sand. The wall of ideas he had built around him was breached. He felt naked and alone, his lifestyle, no, the very ideals he held dear (since the day his then best friend died) went from absolute to moot.

The preceding Friday was a bad day for him. He let himself get lost in his emotions. He let his anger swallow him up. He knew he was paying for it now. He knew that he deserved it. What he did was uncalled for. It was unwise. It was mean-spirited. It was the worst possible thing he could have done in the situation. Part of him regretted it instantly. The part of him that thought better of it was the greater part of him, and after a moment of sitting there uncomfortably he got up and followed the trail of orange soda drops.

He remembered that he had passed by Dash just after going through the double-doors. He remembered the look on the blond's face. He looked angry, so very angry. What he remembered most was that the veins on Dash's neck and forehead protruding wildly. He remembered looking down and seeing Dash's hands clenched into fists, tight, murderous fists. They exchanged no words.

Tucker proceeded to the bathroom, but did not walk in. All he heard was Danny sobbing. He pressed his ear to the door and heard Danny speaking.

"Why would he fucking do this to me?" Danny said.

Tucker walked away after that.

If he was honest, he would say that it did not bother him at the time. He felt good for having made his displeasure known. Sam, who still seemed to harbor a strange and bitter resentment towards Danny, also gave her approval at Tucker's actions. He was pissed, and again, in all honesty, pushing Danny off that stool made him feel better in the moment.

He felt like shit now.

"I fucking alienated him. I fucking alienated the only other person who ever fucking liked me, who ever gave a shit about me."*

* * *

It was lunchtime.

Tucker had managed to evade a full breakdown before school. He was on the lunch line, silently dying. Sam was around someplace, but she had been silent. He knew that she was still considering things and he gave her space. He knew that pushing her too hard would probably backfire. And the last thing he needed was a clusterfuck.

He was so out of it, that he didn't notice Danny's favorite blond quarterback was directly behind him in the line. Ordinarily that would have scared him shitless, but a girl carrying his kid took precedence.

Dash, for his part was showing great restraint. It took every cell in his body pulling in the same direction not to wail the loser in front of him. He kept his calm. He did it for Danny. He wasn't afraid that Danny would be mad at him. He was worried that if he put Foley in his proper place (a box in the ground, in Dash's opinion), that Danny would be disappointed in him. Dash couldn't bear the thought of being in the doghouse, so he kept his hands to himself. He knew he was doing what was right, but it was really fucking... difficult.

What didn't help Dash was the fact that Foley was looking like he was wobbling.

"Hey, Foley," Dash actually spoke to him in a friendly way, "You okay, man?"

Said Foley turned his body the full One hundred eighty degrees to look at the person who had called him. He was so out of it that he could not place the name of the person who had summoned him. The quality of his vision also seemed to flee him. He saw colors and rough figures, but nothing was clear. He swore that his vision just then was worse than that without his glasses. There were no deeper thoughts as his mind and vision went black. He half-expected to feel an impact on the floor but that never came.

Back in reality, Dash found himself in an awkward situation. Foley had turned around, and Dash noted- with a vague dread- that the other kid's eyes were not focused on anything. Dash struggled for a word to describe Tucker's appearance. Pale did not fit the bill, so he went with 'zombified'. That is to say, Tucker seemed to have no life in his face. The rich chocolate shade of his skin was left with what could be described as a gray tinge to it. He looked like death warmed over and that was putting it politely. Something told Dash to put his tray down on the countertop. He listened to his instinct. Not more than a second could have elapsed before a substantial amount of dead weight fell squarely into Dash's arms.

Dash held him gently, as he would a fallen teammate and lowered him gingerly onto the floor. By now a crowd had started to form around them. Most of them looked on like mannequins in a shop window, standing unmoved and saying nothing. Dash was on his knees checking to see if Foley passed out, or kicked the bucket. Tucker's chest moved up and down in fierce defiance of the latter. Dash looked up and around at the crowd. Some of them were gaping like dead fish, others were clearly puzzled, yet another group of them seemed thoroughly and unashamedly impressed that Dash Baxter actually looked to be helping somebody.

He, Dash, swiveled his head about before settling on a particular section of the crowd.

"Don't just fucking stand there. Get the fucking nurse, you assholes!"

Two or three of the nameless and faceless students in the crowd ran off to the nurse's station. Dash heard those running feet disappear into the ether. He heard another set of footsteps coming toward him. They were light footed, rhythmic and familiar. He then heard words come from a voice he knew so well.

"Let me through. Let me through," Danny said, approaching. Danny popped out of the crowd. Dash who was still looking at Tucker raises his head and saw his boyfriend's face. Danny's face said, " _What the fuck?"_

Dash's face said, " _Shit, shit, shit… I can explain."_

"What the fuck did you do?" Danny asked out loud, throwing all caution to the wind.

"He fucking passed out. I ain't hit him; he just sorta fell into my arms."

"What?" Danny asked, the conversation between the two of them now being broadcast.

"It's true," another student next to Danny confirmed. Danny looked to his left and saw that the student was not affiliated with Dash and would have no reason to defend him. The kid advocating for Dash was white, brown hair, brown eyes, average height, average build, and serves no purpose but to tell the truth about the situation. "That kid just like fainted and Dash kinda caught him. He woulda cracked his head open on the lunch counter if Dash hadn't'a been there."

Danny exhaled his relief. His mind had been racing, darting from nightmare to nightmare. His mind was interpreting the situation and was trying to parse truth from the terrible optics. He tried to come up with an answer. He slapped himself mentally for nearly coming to the wrong conclusion. He shocked himself with how he almost jumped the gun and ran away. He was grateful that his intellect prevailed. He almost jumped to the wrong conclusion. He almost did it.

It took what seemed like ninety years, but was probably only about ninety seconds the nurse appeared in the crowd and elbowed her way through.

* * *

When Tucker woke up, he was in the nurse's office, on the bed. Dash's quick instincts saved him a trip to the hospital. He opened his eyes and scanned left to right. Nurse Buckley, then Sam, then Dash, then Danny. They made eye contact and Tucker turned his head around to avoid looking at Danny. He proceeded to turn his body away to effectively lie on his side. He was too ashamed to face the ghost boy after the week before. He did not see Danny's reaction, but it was one of horror, disappointment, and sadness. Dash immediately clenched his teeth and his fists.

"Motherfucker." Dash growled in a tone only audible to himself and Danny. Danny grabbed his clenched fist and unfurled it. And again no one else in the room noticed the gesture. Danny had saved Tucker's life (again) and had stopped Dash from going to jail. Dash had put up no resistance to Danny calming him down. The increasingly slavish lust he had for his boyfriend dictated that he obey. S and M stuff aside, when Danny told or compelled him to do something, he did. His capacity to be calm only arose from a romantic and still chaste desire to make his boyf happy.

Tucker, unaware of all the shit taking place around him, looked at Sam, who he noticed had been crying. The lack of makeup made it less obvious, but she had been obviously upset by the events.

" _Don't cry; don't stress yourself. Think about the baby."_ He thought. It was the first time he entertained the thought of keeping the baby.

"You had an anxiety attack." Mrs. Buckley said, "You'll be okay but whatever is stressing you has to be dealt with. If you can, I say, get rid of it. Just think about what is bothering you so much, dig down deep inside yourself and fix it."

Tucker looked up at Sam. Their eyes met with a knowing stare. They said nothing to each other. In that moment he looked into her eyes, searching for her emotions. Her eyes were unsure, scared, and still ambivalent. And it was that ambivalence that scared him. Time was of the essence.

"You make it sound like I'm crazy." Tucker murmured.

"No, you're not crazy," Sam said, "You just need to relax and know that everything is taken care of." She said the words that he wanted to hear. He didn't believe them, hearing the obvious insincerity. She couldn't even believe it herself.

"Fine, I want all this stress in my life gone."

On the other side was Danny looking on, hurt and terribly perplexed.

* * *

A few hours later, on top of Mount Amity, Danny (in Fenton form) and Dash talked. Neither could go home with the other, lest their parents figure them out.

"He's fucking rude, Danny. And I don't care how you try to spin that!" Dash was breathing fire, "He fucking looked you in the eyes and turned his back on you. And I couldn't even get a fucking thank you for saving his life. He head would have split open like a firecracker."

"I know, Dash, but there is something more going on. When I checked my phone I saw that he left me a bunch of texts and he even left me a voice message. He might have felt like I abandoned-" Danny's gentler nature came through. He was still mad a Tucker and had viewed the friendship as closed. However, and this is a big however, Danny did not think that the door was locked. It was closed, but he thought it could be opened again. Dash interrupting him was proof he wanted his boyfriend to move out of that building altogether.

"Don't fucking apologize for him. HE wanted to end all communication with you, so he ruins your clothes. Then a week later he wants to finally apologize, and only because he wants something from you. Fuck that!" Dash answered.

"Dash-"

"I'm furious. That asshole. I save his life, and then he turns around-"

"That's the life of Danny Phantom." Danny answered calmly, "Doing good, and getting nothing in return. That is the existence of a so-called hero."

"I'm sorry," Dash exhaled, "I guess you have to be very conscientious and calm if I'm going to help you fight ghosts."

"Conscientious? Someone has been hitting the books, huh?" Danny asked.

"I can be smart when I want to be," Dash chuckled, "I figured you out, didn't I?"

"You did," Danny relented, "You are the only one in town who could put it together so that must count for something."

"But there's still some things I'll never figure out about you."

"Like what?" Danny was really curious.

"Like why you stay here, why you like me of all the men in the world, why you don't use those looks of yours to become rich, why you won't just stop this whole modesty thing. You know you want it."

"That was a long list." Danny looked at the ground embarrassed.

"What can I say? I think about you all day long. I mean it's like every second I'm away from you, I'm kinda lost. It's really embarrassing actually."

Danny scooched closer to him and sort of wrapped his arms around him. It was not so much a hug as it was Danny entwining himself with Dash. It was this type of stuff, the innocent, cute stuff that frustrated (in a good way) Dash the most. The marshmallowy stuff brought out the tender feelings he had within himself. He knew he was a big softy on the inside, but was scared to death of the world finding out. Danny presented a problem in that Dash was no longer comfortable in his closet. He never really was, but Danny was something special. He wanted to show the world: " _Listen up, this one is mine, and you sure as hell can't have him."_

Parading his prize around could not be done from a closet. He did not need sequins and fancy (faggy) float. In fact, that flamboyant stuff was not really his taste, but he needed to be out in the open with himself. Danny was pulling him out of the closet, and he wasn't resisting.

"I guess it's all cuz I like you so much," Dash said. It was now his turn to look down at the ground, "Cuz I love you so much."

"Dash, um…" Danny stammered, "Uh…"

"What?"

"Do you think that you could uh… could kiss me?" Danny was in full-blown awkward cute mode, "Like on the lips."

"You don't have to ask."

"I do, cuz, I've never done this. I've had all sorts of fakeout makeouts and you know how they say you can practice with a pillow. I uh,,, tried to learn how and I don't know if I would be good at it... I mean it usually looks so easy but-"

Dash lifted his off his feet by wrapping his arms around Danny's middle, and, in one fell swoop, pressed his lips to Danny's. Dash was impressed and thought," _How the fuck are his lips so soft."_ It was a simple peck, but it broke the ice. Dash set him down, keeping their lips in contact the whole time. When Danny's feet touched the ground, Dash broke it off.

Dash smirked triumphantly, "You talk too much."

"Come here," Danny commanded before wrapped his arms around Dash to kiss him. What Dash had done was gentle, what Danny had gone for now was passionate. The veracity of Danny's kiss almost knocked Dash off his feet. Danny started to hover a bit, which put him at a slight disadvantage.

He felt Danny's lips part slightly. It looked like Dash was approaching first base. It jarred him a little because he had never kissed a boy or anyone for that matter. He opted to let Danny's tongue in.

It felt awkward to Dash at first, as he got used to the taste of Danny. Danny tasted fresh, quite like spearmint, but he tasted clean and delightful. It tasted to him like the freshness of nature. It seemed to emanate from his actual essence rather than seem artificially added. On Danny's end, he thought that Dash tasted almost sweet. Dash's flesh had an almost cinnamon taste to it. Maybe all of that gum-chewing was paying off. He liked the ever so slight chap of Dash's lips. It made him feel like he was kissing a man, a real man. And Danny wasn't into soft anything. Not soft lips, a soft chest, a soft dick, a soft ass filled him with desire. He liked everything tight and hard and his boyfriend fit the bill.

They both struggled a bit at first, their tongues testing the other, getting used to the company. It felt pleasant and innocent to them at first too. They were too cute, standing up there eyes, closed exploring the other's mouth. Dash knew that it was not exactly the best comparison, but this experience was something akin to losing his virginity. It was, though, chaste experimentation, rather than something dirty and passionate. Dash liked it this way. Danny was showing his adventurous side. He was starting to find that this kissing thing wasn't too hard. He felt that Dash was beginning to hold his own.

The broke apart for air. They were not yet at panting stage, but they knew that round two was going to be hot.

"You taste…" Dash started, "You taste good."

"So do you, Dashy."

"Dashy?"

"You heard me." Danny answered. He initiated the kiss again and was merciless.

Danny went for full dominance right away and that was a big mistake. He didn't know what he was going against. In every other arena he was superior due to his spectral omnipotence, but not here. Dash was the top (at least for now) and he should have known it. Going that hard on Dash only awoke the football star's killer instinct. Dash now found himself fighting.

Dash went all in and fought for dominance. Their tongues were locked in battle. Dash felt Fenton's tongue relenting. Danny wanted to find a way to win this, but his mind was blank with bliss. Dash then pulled out the big guns and started to rub Danny's throbbing rod through his jeans. Danny's yelp of pleasure was muffled by the kiss and transitioned naturally into a moan. Dash took even more liberty, and, using his left hand, grabbed Danny by the ass (the right cheek to be precise) and pulled him over, deeper into the kiss. Dash was thinking about what he should do next. He was very tempted to stick his hand down Danny's pants.

The front would have been great. He wanted nothing more than to give Danny pleasure. He wanted Danny to cum in his hand. Strangely enough, he wanted to see if ghost boy cum tasted good, or at least tasted the same as his. That bulge: If he was honest, he would tell you that it was the most appealing thing that he had ever seen. He wanted most of all to... to touch it. Did it feel the same as his? What would Danny's face do? Would he moan Dash's name?

If he went in through the back door, he knew that his warm hand would be welcome. He already felt how Danny was grinding his hips into him, trembling a bit in horny desire. As he already knew, Danny's rear was in perfect proportion and seemed to fit with almost providential perfection in his hand. He wanted to find out how tight that hole was. "Boi-pussy' is what he called it, and he wanted to know if Danny kept it tight. He was sure that he did, but Dash was a curious Dannyfucker. He calmed his nerves a bit, knowing that the time would come.

They let each other go again. Now they were doing it to regain some oxygen.

"I haven't felt this alive in a long time." Danny said between gasps.

"I don't know what you were afraid of."

"Dying was hard Dash, but living is harder. I was afraid of what life had to offer." Danny was being honest. "I was afraid to feel again. Dash, I put myself away in a box, in a sort of coffin to hide myself away from the world. What happened last week, with my old friends abandoning me made me think that I was right to bury myself away."

Dabby put his hand on Dash's heart and continued, "But since I met you, the real you, I've felt different. I have learned more about human nature than I ever thought possible. I have learned more about myself and more about you in this last seven days than I ever thought possible."

"I mean... It's nothing really." Dash was genuinely being bashful.

"No, it's not just nothing," Danny stepped closer to Dash, he was still exhausted, so the words came out breathily. The tone of voice did nothing but stir Dash's emotion, and make him even harder, "You dug me out, opened that box, and dusted me off. You brought me back to life."

"I did?" Dash almost gulped.

"Yes, you did. You saved me." Danny said, feeling a new confidence in himself. "You're my hero." Danny's voice turned into almost a whisper. "And you know what that means?"

"Uh-uh." Dash was reduced to syllables by this sexy thing in front of him.

"It means that I owe you… I am alive and I am going to enjoy _all_ that life has to offer."

"Fuck…" Dash's eyes opened wide as he put it all together. He could not hide his astonishment. He must have been a pretty damn good kisser to bring out the animal in Danny. He had tried to manufacture it, but he learned a lesson in patience. He knew that Danny would open up at some point, but the other boy had to be allowed to do it as his own pace. Feelings that Dash had tried to make, became manifest from Danny's own mind and soul. Dash knew he couldn't have gotten it this good if he tried. Organic love was much better than manmade. Natural beats synthetic.

"...Fuck." Was all Dash could manage to get out for a second time

"Oh, we're going to do a _lot_ of that big boy."  
"Not today though?" Dash inquired.

"No. It would be over in ten seconds if you fucked me now. I've been on the edge for days now. I think I would explode as soon as I looked at you."

"Fair enough." Dash agreed. He wanted his first time to be long and passionate, not a quickie.

"And besides, you still owe me a date." Danny said. He face felt funny when he said it.

"You're right. Though if I'm honest today was first base, but I've definitely gotten onto second before."

"Stick to football." Danny joked, grabbing his face. "Is there anything wrong with my face?"

"No, Danny, you're smiling."

"I forgot what it felt like, but you're going to help me along, and get me used to life again. Deal?"

"Deal." Dash agreed with him. "How about tomorrow. No ifs, ands, or buts."

"You, me, and some money to see a movie in Bedford."

"And maybe a hotel room in Elmerton." Danny said off the cuff

"WHAT?" Dash's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Just kidding." Danny chuckled, "Trust me, when I'm ready, when it's time, you'll know."

"Thanks, Danny, but jokes like that scare me to death." Dash laughed.

"Well, don't die. That would be really inconvenient."

Something occurred just then to Dash and he had to say it, "Since you're like technically dead, and I like you… I mean like I love you a lot."

"What is it, Dashie?"

"Well since I like a dead guy…And sooner rather than later, I'm going to have sex with him... Does that like make me… like the king of necrophiliacs?"

Danny and Dash stopped in their tracks, not that they were moving. They looked each other in the eyes deep in thought. Dash had posed an excellent question, one that would have haunted many. They couldn't help but crack matching smiles and start laughing hysterically.

"Are you gonna drive me home, now?" Danny asked.

"Of course, let's go, boyfriend."

They walked back towards his car, Danny tucked neatly under Dash's arm.

* * *

Leave me a review because people's ideas have impacted the story.


	18. Eighteen

Sorry, it's been a while, but my professors don't care about you guys :(

* * *

Don't worry, I still do :) This chapter is pivotal to the story and therefore a little longer than usual. Hopefully people in the States can enjoy it on their days off for Columbus Day. Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends. :)

* * *

Danny couldn't stop fiddling with his hair in the mirror. He was anxious. It was a pleasant anxiety. He had relented and was finally going on a date with Dash. Saturday, September 16, was going down in his personal history as a red letter day. He felt silly for waiting so long. He felt selfish for making Dash wait so long. He looked over at the clock. It was ten minutes to one and Dash would be around at any second. Autumn had really started and it was only about sixty-five degrees out. That's what his phone told him. He had been waiting for that text from Dash to tell him to come outside. He fiddled with his hair some more, trying to get the 'bang' just right. He walked over to the window and saw that it was a breezy day. His quasi-coiffured style wouldn't survive a moment, but he wanted to look perfect.

There was a tapping at his bedroom door. His eyes darted over in surprise. He thought for a moment that it was Dash but he abandoned that quickly. Dash wouldn't come into the house. At least, not yet.

"Come in." Danny said.

Enter his sister, dressed as she usually was, in a black long-sleeve v-neck shirt, aqua pants, and a pair of simple, black flats, forsaking the ghost gear altogether. Danny was right; she was using that whole ghost convention merely as a guise to examine abnormal psychology. It was, no doubt, a great sample for her research. He snapped back into the present and looked at her. She looked concerned, but that look adorned her face the way white attached to rice. He wanted to tell her that she didn't need worry lines by the end of her twenties, but that would be a waste of breath. Danny knew that she would be a shrink, if her well-warranted worry for her family's sanity didn't drive her to needing one herself.

"Hey Jazz," Danny's voice was flat, surprised that she needed to come in, "What's up?"

"Whose toothbrush is that in the bathroom?" Jazz asked in a way that did not sound terribly upset, but then again she was the therapist in training. It was just strange to see another toothbrush in the bathroom.

"What?" Danny asked, panicking and scrounging for a lie. 'Scrounging' because he was begging his brain to come up with something, anything plausible. Nothing came, so he purchased himself a few more seconds, "What do you mean?"

"There's another toothbrush in the bathroom. There's four of us who live in this house, but there are _five_ toothbrushes in the bathroom right now. Whose is-"

The most obvious answer occurred to him, "Me... I mean, it's mine. I was too lazy to throw my old one out so I just got a new one." When the words stopped passing from his lips, he realized that his answer was wholly insufficient.

"Wait?" She saw the evident flaws, "You had enough energy to get a new toothbrush from the linen closet, but not enough energy to take the old one and toss it in a bin. Really? Come on..."

"It sounds bad, but it's true." Danny could barely manage it, he tried to pivot to something else to throw her off the trial, "I also walk around in just my underwear when the house is empty. I get lazy and stupid."

Jazz cracked a knowing, impish sort of smile, ignoring his diversion. "Is it Sam's?" Well, she didn't know too much...

Danny could have died (again). "No, it's not Sam's. It was never like that between us." Danny said, telling the truth.

"Oh, maybe you were having that so called," she did the air-quotes, "'bro-time' with Tucker. You were probably playing video games, eating a lot of junk food, talking about breasts... whatever you teenage boys do. Mom and Dad would kill you if they knew you were partying it up on school nights."

"No, it's not Tucker's toothbrush either."

"Is it someone I know?" Jazz asked calmly.

"I already told you that it's mine."

"Okay, whatever you say…" She took a pause, "Do they go to Casper?"

"Yes, I do." Danny answered, resolute in his attempts to not be tripped up with her mind games. Being the little brother, he knew every trick she had under her sleeve. He even knew her methodology, reasons, and procedure for trying to get into his head. It was admirable that she still tried. In the name of fairness, it must be said that anyone not as expert in her ways as Danny ould be tricked into spilling the beans and then some. She gave you a sort of comfort and support that actually would make her a marvelous therapist.

"Fine, if you're going to be stubborn, I will be as stubborn in trying to figure it out."

"There's nothing to figure." Danny persisted.

"Oh please, spare me. You've been all spacey and daydreamy since we got back."

"I actually don't know what you're talking about, Jazz," He knew that he was close to really being caught completely out. Her deduction skills were commendable, but he wished that she would try to deduce something else. He continued to speak, "Seriously, I think you're over-analyzing what really amounts to nothing. There's no conspiracy here."

"I didn't say conspiracy." She answered.

"This whole interrogation does, madame 'inquisitor'."

"You're sweating bullets." She walked inside and shut the door behind her. "If there's something, anything you want to tell me, you don't have to hesitate. Please…" She walked over to him and put an understanding hand on his shoulder. "If you ever want to talk, I'm here for you."

He was a bit embarrassed at the gesture. A slight red tinge found itself planted on his cheeks. He looked at her in the mirror. She had a couple of inches on him. He looked into her eyes for a second and looked away quickly. She was looking into his mind and she was really good at it. Again, it must be stated, that he knew all of her tricks. This was her peroration and if he got through this, he would be fine.

"Come on, look at you now," she remarked, looking at his attire in the mirror, "You like like you're going to meet whoever it is right now."

He wanted again, to cease living, "You're crazy. I'm just going outside."

"You wouldn't get all dolled up if you were just going out. You're wearing a sweater and it looks like you've been trying to get your hair all perfect." Danny stated.

"If you were just going for a walk, you'd wear that same old hoodie that you always wear. The one with the Danny Phantom insignia. Now, you're dressed up semi-presentable. You're going out-out, like on a date. Who is it?"

Danny noticed the lack of a gender pronoun. And he knew that Jazz picked every word carefully when in this mood. She was leaving the door open for him to say a girl or _boy's_ name. For that, he was incredibly grateful. He was not going to tell her, no matter how hard she was trying to find out.

"Thank you Jazz for your concern but don't worry. I'm a big boy and I can handle myself. I can make my own decisions."

"Fine," she relented, "Just so long as it's not Kwan. He's mine."

She had just boxed him in cleverly. If his reaction was too quiet and tepid, it would look like a confirmation of his preference. If his reaction was over the top, she could infer that he was gay and still touchy about it.

"You're crazy, Jazz." He mustered the 'straightest' answer he could. He was not convinced that it was good enough, but it looked like she was. She gave him a kiss on temple and walked out of the room. He watched as her blazing red hair left the room. He established at least that they had similar tastes in men. Jock types seemed to ring their bells. He knew very well that she had put a large part of the puzzle together. She had completed the edges but she was not quite there yet with the full picture. He knew at least one person in the family wouldn't freak if and when that time came when the team he batted for was revealed. One out of three were not great odds, but thirty-three and a third sure as fuck beat zero. His mother operated on somewhat the same sensibilities as Jazz so maybe it would not be so bad. He did not intend to find out anytime soon.

He did know this coming out as gay would be nothing as compared to coming out as ghost. He was just glad Jazz did not and could not have a clue about the second secret. He brought himself back to the present and his date with Dash. He looked in the mirror again and stopped trying to fix his hair. That was as good as it was going to look. He looked into his face and saw that his cheeks were still ablaze in mortification. He knew that the blush would not disappear while he thought about it, so he looked away. He looked down at his phone.

1:01pm Dashie: I'm parked around the corner.

"Oh shit." Danny said, unceremoniously shoving his phone, wallet and keys into his pockets.

He exited his room and rushed down the stairs. "Bye Mom, bye Dad. I'll be back later." He yelled into the house not knowing where he were or if he could hear them.

He walked out of Fenton Works and locked the door behind him. He descended the steps and made a left up his block. He slowed down as to not look too excited. He made another left and saw Dash sitting in his car, wearing his letterman, and twiddling his thumbs. Dash was nervous and so was he.

" _He's so cute,"_ Danny thought. " _I make him nervous."_

Danny stiffened a bit at the thought and that did not make for great comfort in the blue skinny jeans he opted for today. His gait was fine but it felt like he was trying to smuggle a pepperoni.

Dash though to himself from the car, " _His cheeks are so rosy. Why the fuck is he so cute? And is he hard down there. No Dash, you're imagining that..."_

* * *

Danny was sitting in the passenger seat of Dash's car. Sitting there watching the houses grow farther apart from one another as hey left town made him feel relaxed. The roads were smooth, and Dash turned out to be an excellent driver. It was only a half hour drive out to Bedford, but Danny could feel himself physically relaxing. It had been years since he left the city limits of Amity Park. He watched that sign approach him "Now Leaving Amity Park". When he passed it, he felt like a bird freed from his cage. Dash would later say that the look on his face and the sound of his voice spoke was pure joy. Danny was like a sparrow chirping in the morning.

Dash sort of blushed when he realized that even seeing Danny happy could make his day. Seeing Danny smile was all he needed to continue on with what would be a terrible life. Danny had said that Dash gave him life. Dash could only reply by living it, and savoring it. In the back of his head, he knew something would come up. Things were going entirely too well. He was not, by nature, a pessimist, but he kept his feet firmly planted in the real and reasonable. He appreciated the risk he was taking by exiting the town, but dammit Danny was his soon-to-be loverboy. Danny was his reason for being in these new times, and he was comfortable with that.

He kept his eye on the road, only glancing over periodically. Danny was looking out the passenger side window. Dash felt like the luckiest person on earth to have Danny with him. Aesthetic pleasure could be derived from many places. Emotion attachment came from much fewer. Mutual liking was rare. And for Dash, it looked like love only came around once. Dash would be glad to say that he found it early. He found it by pure chance. He almost felt that it was supernatural.

He saw it like this: How many people do superheroes fall in love with. Danny had fallen for him, and the feeling was quite mutual. That was not chance. It was fate. He was never a fatalist but if there was ever any proof, this was it.

Danny piped up, feeling bad that he was breaking the lovely stillness between them. "Dash don't freak out."

"What is it?"

"Uh… Jazz found your toothbrush."

"Shit. I should've taken it with-" Dash felt guilty. He was not doing so well at this boyfriend thing. "Is everything okay?"

"It's fine."

"She knows?" Dash asked.

"She suspects, but she's really okay with it. It seems like she is putting the pieces together. With her psychological expertise, I guess, she doesn't think that anything is wrong."

"Well, what do we do about it then?" Dash asked.

"Nothing. There's no problem." Danny said. "Uh sorta unrelated…"

"Shoot."

"What do you know about Kwan?" Danny asked.

"Well, he was sort of my best friend. This summer we kinda fell out. Not like a fight or anything, we just kinda stopped talking."

"Oh?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, he wanted to go out and do stuff everyday. I would go sometimes and you know, it was fun and all, but I wanted to use the summer to you know, have fun on the internet while my parents were out."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, and I would go most days, but the days I wanted to stay home and jack off, he would call me. Sometimes I would just ignore it or I would tell him I was busy that day. So then he would ask me what I was doing and I couldn't tell him, I never lied to him, so I would just say 'Nunya business'. The calls just kinda stopped in like the end of July and we haven't talked since."

"Oh."

"Why do you ask, Danny? Are you trying to be the meat in some sort of really gay sandwich?" Dash asked, actually entertaining the idea "I mean, if you want a good orgy… sorta- daisy chain thing that can always be arranged. Somehow I think I could swing that with him. It would take time though..."

"Wait, really? What? NO… I mean…. that would be kinda sexy…" Danny trailed off, not knowing what to make of those last comments, "I mean no… It's just that I just… that… I wanted to know if he liked any one."

"As a matter of fact, you won't believe who he's had the hots for since fifth grade."

"Who?"

"Your sister."

"Bullshit!" Danny exclaimed in pleasant disbelief.

"Seriously."

"Well, it's mutual."

"What?" Dash asked.

"Well, while she was trying to get me to divulge who I was dating, she said and I quote: 'Just so long as it's not Kwan. He's mine.'"

"Really?" Dash asked in disbelief.

"You Fentons love going for us jock types. Is anyone safe?"

They both chuckled at that.

Dash continued, "But seriously, why don't we hook them up? I mean it'll bring Kwan and me back together to get him the girl he wants."

"And it'll keep her from snooping on me, on us. And I think we could use some privacy for things we'll be getting up to later."

Dash gulped. "Oh yeah?"

"Unless you like being watched…" Danny remarked faux-offhanded.

"Stop it." Dash was stern. "I'm trying to drive here. I've got to keep my eyes on the road here. Not on my crotch or yours. And no putting fantasies in my head while I'm trying to operate this man-killing machine."

"Fine." Danny answered, "That's fair."

"Thank you. I mean, not that I mind you flirting. Actually I think it's hot for a cute boy to say really dirty things. I don't need any blood being diverted from my hands and brain to my crotch."

"I understand." Danny said. "I will keep my mouth shut until it's time for something to fill it up."

"No, I still want to talk to you." Dash said. "You know the whole get to know you stuff."

"Like what?"

Dash shrugged, eyes still fixed on the road "What's you're favorite color?"

"Blue. And yours?"

"Green." Dash replied.

"Uh, what's your favorite food?" Danny could get down with the chaste questions.

"Steak, and my whole family, even my cousins, make fun of me because I like it well done." Dash chuckled. "I know it's not blood, it's just protein, but I need it to be a little more dead before I eat it. How about you?"

"Uh.. don't laugh."

"I wouldn't."

Danny exhaled, "I love hot dogs. I swear to God I'm not messing with you. I'm not making some sort of sex joke thing. Hot dogs with only ketchup. Uh… it's your turn I guess."

"I was gonna ask what's something people don't know about you… but that's kinda obvious." Dash said, his voice getting smaller.

"Well," Danny said, "Other than being a gay half-ghost, I would say that most people don't know that I'm a pretty good shot."

"What? Really, you go to the range… or-"

"Well, all those ghost weapons are like kinda based on firearms. Most of them are held like pistols. Others are held like shotguns and rifles. The biggest one is held like a bazooka. Dad sorta taught me how to handle them and now I'm a pretty good shot. Anything interesting about you?"

"Well, I guess it's that… Je parle français." (I speak French) Dash sort of whispered it.

Danny noticed the marked change in accent but did not hear the words. He asked, "What did you say?"

"J'ai dit que je parle français." Dash said louder, with perfect pronunciation. Danny could have sworn he was in Europe. (I said that I speak French.)

"You're not serious." Danny's jaw dropped almost in a 'ready to suck dick' sort of way.

"Je suis très sérieux. Je ne te mentirais jamais." Then he translated himself. "I'm very serious. I would never lie to you."

"How?"

"My grandparents on my mother's side are Belgian and they came to America after World War II. My mom and her brothers were born here. She ended up staying in America and my uncles got jobs in Québéc and one lives in Nice in France. She speaks both English and French and she taught me both. My cousins in Canada and in Europe speak French more comfortably than English so I text and talk to them in French."

"Does anyone at school know?" Danny asked, still gobsmacked.

"No, you know how many girls would want me even more. They literally chased me enough as it was. I already hated how all the girls wanted to jump on me, especially the one who would just giggle when I walked past. It was embarrassing as fuck. Throw in that I speak the so-called 'language of love', and life would have been plain impossible. Not even Kwan or Paulina have a clue."

"I get it."

"Are you gonna want me to speak French to you." Dash asked, the worry evident in his voice.

"No, I mean, unless you want to. English has more oomph… besides 'fuck you' sounds more badass than…"

"Baise toi." (Fuck you).

"Exactly, even the curse words sound too mushy and beautiful. Besides, I'm English, both sides, I mean. All the way back."

"Then, we'll make sure not to eat anything too spicy or tasty in any way." Dash joked.

"Fuck you…" Danny said, laughing. He wanted to say something about Belgium, but all he could think of was how good waffles were. He couldn't blame Dash for King Leopold's rule over the Congo. Then his mind went someplace else. " _An Englishman taking it hard and deep from a Continental sounds about right."_ Danny thought, wondering why his mind made that analogy.

"Fine... you will be soon enough anyway… " Dash made an unashamed statement of fact, "...uh what do you want to do after the movie? Eat someplace? Or-"

"Look-" Danny interrupted him, "Is that Tucker's car up ahead of us?"

Dash looked at the car in question. It wasn't the only car ahead of them, but it was the one directly ahead. Dash could see why Danny would say that, but was not quite sure.

"I'm gonna go invisible and see." Danny stated as a promise, not waiting for Dash to give an answer. Danny went invisible, though Dash could still see him, and went flying along. Danny held out his fist this time to catch up. He, matching the speed of Tucker's car effortlessly, flew along the passenger side and looked in.

Lo and behold, Tucker was driving and Sam was sitting in the passenger seat. He was dressed the same as he always was. She… she was dressed in all black. That sounds like the usual, but it was different this time.

When she wore her blacks, it was usually for the projection of a certain attitude. She was telling the world that she was against the false pretenses of joy it put forth. She was being ironic, or gothic, or even standing with those that she pitied. The clothes were her pose, not her actual sentiment. The clothes were her statement, her testimony to the world. Most of time she was telling the absolute truth. Sometimes she was perjuring herself. It never occurred to her that the miserable attitude she put out as her persona was never what she wanted to be. Her pursuit of this 'real' made her into something she never was.

There were some things of goth culture that did fit her character. She did have a natural skepticism of society, an affinity to allegory, and a complete need to reject the social conservatism of her parents. Goth had been all those things to her at one point or another, but carried forth, it came to an extreme that she did not wish to know. Her will not to know the depths of her subculture only made her less able to escape it (or its excesses). Goth criticized society, but went too far in that it seemed to reject it utterly. She still wanted to exist in 'America', but she saw flaws. Goth music and the artistic offshoots thereof pleased her sense of style. English was her favorite subject, and the music had themes of literature.

Lastly, goth was anathema to her parents. She, like all other teenagers, sought to rebel and be free and, with equal energy please them. Her disagreements with her parents politics was her rebellion. In reality, her liberalism seemed to be fleeing, drying up like grass in a drought. She was moderating. Things, the moral issues were less absolute, and more nuanced. In a strange way, she thought she would be doing her parents would be proud that she could not absolutely support the abortion she was leaning towards.

In short, the whole goth thing for her started to feel fake now. She was just a poser in her own eyes now. No amount of black hair dye, black nail polish, dark lipstick could change the reality. Her subculture could not save her. She had to do this as Samantha Manson, goth or not. Her pose, her attitude towards the world meant nothing. Her thoughts and wishes, her philosophies, her persona that she presented to the world were worthless. She was alone, and we be alone if she had this abortion, or if she gave birth. 'Lonely' did not scratch the surface.

This was different than anything she had felt before. She was not merely saying what she was through her comportment. She was showing it. Everything about the bleakness on her face, the austerity in her posture, and the darkness that clung to her like wet jeans filled Danny with a fear he never felt before. He watched, still flying alongside, simply staring, knowing that he needed to intervene. He felt something for her. He never liked to feel it for anyone because he never wanted to see it in someone's eyes. He detested the idea of being the subject of anything resembling this emotion, but he felt in nonetheless.

He pitied her.

He actually had the capacity in his heart to feel bad for her.

Despite all her shit, all her hate for him, her betrayal, her joy in his misery, her long train of abuses, he pitied her. He felt for her in spite of himself.

He looked back over at Tucker. The one who used to be his best friend was focused on the road. A grimace was planted on his face. His expression was pensive, yet simultaneously showed signs of aloofness. He looked resolute, as if he was performing something he regarded as duty. Delight could often be found in duty, but it could not be found on Tucker's face. The two of them together could not even be described as death warmed over; that would be too generous.

Tucker's life was happening second by second. Every second that he held himself together was a miracle. He knew he was destroying something. The fetus inside his girlfriend was, of course, the most important thing on his mind. Not only was he calling for its destruction, but for the destruction of innocence as he knew it.

Sure, it's easy to say that the innocence died the second he had sex, or the moment he saw his first pornographic images, but that was just sex. Sex, to him was just a source of pleasure that two people could share. It was like a game, but he had not realized that it was Russian Roulette. Somebody was going to be shot, he just hoped it would _never_ be him. He felt like a kid playing with a gun. It means nothing, until the consequences are understood. The consequences were Sam having an abortion, Sam having the baby and keeping it, or Sam having the baby and giving it up for adoption. The last two choices were the nearly same for him in the short term because it meant that his parents would know.

Danny phased back into Dash's car and sat back in the passenger's seat. He buckled up and pulled his legs up to the seat. He rested his feet on the seat. Dash almost objected, but realized that the shoes were clean like new. Dash glanced over at his boyfriend, Danny's hair was completely disheveled. Dash looked over and saw a Danny's eyes, bluer than even peering out, straight ahead. A single sad tear fell from Danny's left eye and Dash knew something was deeply, deeply wrong.

"Follow them." Danny said in a whisper, not bothering to wipe away that single tear.

Dash knew their date was postponed again.

* * *

Dash followed them into the parking lot of the Bedford Medical Park. Dash got a sick feeling his gut. Danny was right. He glanced over at his boyfriend. Danny was still wide-eyed as if he put it all together. It was a large parking lot set up as a go-between for the facilities on the left and right. They were modern buildings, more glass than walls, but austere and purely utilitarian. Dash's eyes darted back and forth. One building was familiar to Dash. It was the medical center where he had his sports physical and his blood work done. The other building looked the same, though the sign on top made him shudder. It was not some political reason that made him react. He was so taken aback that he did not put it together before.

He watched them park in the mostly empty lot and pulled up a couple of spots away from them. They sat in the car for a moment, as Dash switched his off. Danny flew out of the car like a bat out of hell. Dash exited more like a human. He locked his car and listened for the beep of confirmation. He caught up with Danny as he walked towards them.

"What the fuck, guys?!" Danny yelled as he approached.

The couple stopped in their tracks, surprised and embarrassed that Danny had followed them. She was upset that he knew, and Tucker was upset that he didn't notice them. Sam and Tucker looked over at Danny and saw Dash approaching behind him.

"Go away, Danny." Sam said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Danny asked.

"Oh… now Danny's upset about secrets." Sam who had been holding Tucker's hand, let go and approached Danny at speed. She looked like she wanted to strike him, but he remained unmoved. "I'm not upset. I'm just surprised, alright. We're standing in front of a Planned Parenthood and I know you're not here for just a checkup."

Dash arrived at the situation but stood back, as did Tucker and let them argue it out. He would only speak if spoken to or mentioned.

"Since when did you care?" Sam asked.

"What the fuck? Even after the two of you ditched me I cared. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have just broken a date to follow you. If I didn't care, I could be watching a movie right now. If I didn't _fucking_ care, I could be doing anything else, but I'm not. I'm standing right here, arguing with you. If you don't think I care, you're really delusional."

"So," he voice was calm, after seeing his sincerity, "Why are you here?"

"What happened to us?" He asked, "I mean really. You're fifty feet away from an abortion clinic and I find out only because I was coincidentally travelling in the same direction."

"And we only find out that you're gay because we happen to catch you jer-"

He cut her off, "Okay, but that was then. This is now. You're about to do something really, really big."

"So what?" She shrugged.

"It's a sin." Dash said to no one really.

"What?" Sam looked past Danny and straight at the quarterback. "Stay out of this. It's none of your business."

"No." Dash said, "It is my business when Danny's crying in my arms about this. It is my business when my first date, ever, something I could only dream about is interrupted only because he cares."

"I-"

"No, shut the fuck up." Dash shut her down and looked over to Tucker who only backed down physically, "You have been putting him through hell with the way you treating him. He's been sobbing to me about how much he thought you cared about him. Apparently, you don't. This whole time I've told him to just let the two of you go. I was telling him to move on, but he wouldn't. I don't know what the fuck your damage is, but you need to get over it, because he's standing right there trying to help you."

"He's-" She still wanted to blame Danny for something.

"You know what Sam," Dash continued, "I used to think a lot about you, but I never thought you were stupid. And for the last however long this has been, you've been nothing but a stupid, nasty bitch. And I don't think Danny would have ever been your friend if that is who you actually were."

"I'm sorry," she yelled sarcastically, "I am so sorry that I got knocked up. I'm so sorry that I ruined your date. Forgive me..." she put her hands together as if in prayer, and continued bitterly, "Excuse me for ruining your day, Dash. Go back to your date with your little boyfriend."

"Stop it!" Danny screamed. "I don't-"

"No, you stop it." Sam walked back over to Tucker, leaving Danny in the middle. He was equidistant from his boyfriend and his best friends (formerly) "You want to prove that you're my friend. Pick."

"What?" It was like he had been hit in the chest with a baseball bat."

"I said: 'Pick'."

"Me and Tucker or your boyfriend. It's really easy. You can choose more than a decade of friendship or more than a decade of teasing and physical abuse. Choose Danny between us who know everything there is to know, versus him, who I bet doesn't understand the surface."

Danny put his hands over his ears and the tars started to flow. He could not believe this was happening to him.

"What kind of" Dash did the air-quotes, "'best friend' makes their best friend make this kind of decision?"

"Oh, you think you know about him?" Sam asked.

"I'm not gonna let you do this. You think my boyfriend is just something to haggle over. He means more to me than you could ever understand."

"You don't even know the half of it…"

"No, you don't know the half of it Manson. He's more important to me than your mental bullshit. I'm not going to stand here and do this to Danny."

"Stop it!" Danny yelled, crying like he never cried before. "I only came here to tell you that we could talk to Clockwork about this whole situation. I-" he gasped, "I thought that we could go back in time and stop you from doing-"

"That's a good idea-" Tucker said, his voice shrinking realizing that Sam had probably closed that option off.

"But now you want me to choose between you and Dash. You say you're my friend and then you make me pick between you and someone I'm falling for. I can't be friends with you."

He walked over to Dash and nudged himself under his arm. The gap had been closed and Danny made his choice. Dash won, easily. They were a lot closer than Sam could have ever imagined.

"Fuck you, Danny." Sam offered that as the grand finale to their relationship. "It was supposed to be you and me. WE were supposed to be together. US! I brought you back to health. I made you what you are."

"Let's go, Danny," Dash was trying to turn his body towards the car, "She's crazy."

"I know." Danny whispered.

They started moving towards the car.

"Wait!" Danny and Dash stopped in their tracks, but did not turn around. It was Tucker's voice. "She doesn't feel well. I mean, her body's been throwing her for a loop. I am the last person that should be asking for favors. I know that. But if we can prevent this whole thing from happening. The pregnancy I mean…I guess that… I don't know. I understand if you'd never want to talk to me again after this, but I mean… this is my whole life here. I can't be tethered to this thing forever man. I know you." Tucker started to sniffle. Danny did not turn around, "I know you have a big heart. I know that if you can find it in your heart- I mean all of Amity Park is safe because of-"

Tucker stopped. He didn't know how much Dash knew. Danny turned around and so did Dash.

"He knows, Tucker." Danny said, looking at Tucker, who had removed his glasses and had a single tear running down his right cheek.

"Amity is safe because of your work and what you do. I mean can you… and I know that I don't deserve it. Can you save me, us, me and Sam, like this one last time. Help us out on this one and I swear, we'll leave you alone forever. I mean, this might not mean much to you, but I mean… In the name of our friendship, in the name of all the stuff we've done together. Can you help us one last time?"

Tucker fell to his knees, begging in the same spot where Danny had once stood. Danny looked at him and then at Sam. Then he looked at his boyfriend.

"Whatever you do, man, I understand…" Dash said, almost breathlessly, almost through telepathy. He held Danny tighter, waiting to see what he would decide.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...


	19. Nineteen

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER 18

* * *

"Stop it!" Danny yelled, crying like he never cried before. "I only came here to tell you that we could talk to Clockwork about this whole situation. I-" he gasped, "I thought that we could go back in time and stop you from doing-"

"That's a good idea-" Tucker said, his voice shrinking realizing that Sam had probably closed that option off.

"But now you want me to choose between you and Dash. You say you're my friend and then you make me pick between you and someone I'm falling for. I can't be friends with you."

He walked over to Dash and nudged himself under his arm. The gap had been closed and Danny made his choice. Dash won, easily. They were a lot closer than Sam could have ever imagined.

"Fuck you, Danny." Sam offered that as the grand finale to their relationship. "It was supposed to be you and me. WE were supposed to be together. US! I brought you back to health. I made you what you are."

"Let's go, Danny," Dash was trying to turn his body towards the car, "She's crazy."

"I know." Danny whispered.

They started moving towards the car.

"Wait!" Danny and Dash stopped in their tracks, but did not turn around. It was Tucker's voice. "She doesn't feel well. I mean, her body's been throwing her for a loop. I am the last person that should be asking for favors. I know that. But if we can prevent this whole thing from happening. The pregnancy I mean…I guess that… I don't know. I understand if you'd never want to talk to me again after this, but I mean… this is my whole life here. I can't be tethered to this thing forever man. I know you." Tucker started to sniffle. Danny did not turn around, "I know you have a big heart. I know that if you can find it in your heart- I mean all of Amity Park is safe because of-"

Tucker stopped. He didn't know how much Dash knew. Danny turned around and so did Dash.

"He knows, Tucker." Danny said, looking at Tucker, who had removed his glasses and had a single tear running down his right cheek.

"Amity is safe because of your work and what you do. I mean can you… and I know that I don't deserve it. Can you save me, us, me and Sam, like this one last time. Help us out on this one and I swear, we'll leave you alone forever. I mean, this might not mean much to you, but I mean… In the name of our friendship, in the name of all the stuff we've done together. Can you help us one last time?"

Tucker fell to his knees, begging in the same spot where Danny had once stood. Danny looked at him and then at Sam. Then he looked at his boyfriend.

"Whatever you do, man, I understand…" Dash said, almost breathlessly, almost through telepathy. He held Danny tighter, waiting to see what he would decide.

Dash looked down at his boyfriend. He felt Danny trembling in his arms and that scared him. Danny was always taking the strain of life and death and had no allies it seemed, no allies save Dash himself.

"What should I do?" Danny whispered.

"The right thing."

The smaller one had the urge ask, out loud which option. _"What does that mean?"_ He thought.

"I will help you." Danny's voice was small. It took every fiber of his being pulling in the same direction to say that. Those four words were probably the hardest ever to say. Dash hugged him a little tighter. Danny didn't look up to see the expression on his boyfriend's face.

Tucker did.

In that moment, Tucker saw a sort of mellow delight in Dash's face. He watched as he embraced Danny and moved him closer. The move was subtle, but it said something very profound. Tucker realized that he had underestimated Dash. Dash was holding his boyfriend with a familiarity and love that spoke of volumes of time together. Tucker knew that they had not been together for long, but it looked like it had. The two looked as if they knew the other more than he knew himself. Tucker could not place it, but there was something deeper there. It was deeper than romance, deeper than just and sex. It, whatever it was, seemed even to be deeper than anything he could comprehend, and it all came from the way Dash held him.

* * *

Dash kept his eye on the road, only taking the occasional glance to his right to look at Danny, or up to look into his rear view mirror to see Tucker and Sam following them. He was peeved that every time he wanted to spend the day with his boyf, something ALWAYS seemed to fucking come up. He hated it. He hated everything about it.

He wanted to spend time with Danny, to do something normal outside, in the daylight. Snuggling up in bed was one thing, and undoubtedly a good thing, but he wanted to show the world 'this one's mine'. He could not do it in Amity, but he wanted to do it someplace. He was growing more comfortable with the fact that he was in love with a someone who had the same parts as him. He was becoming acquainted with the idea sex. He knew that Danny was not there, and that the events preceding did not help.

He talked a good game for the last week, but, if he was honest, he knew he would hesitate. The mechanics of the various acts was simple. The placement of the various parts into certain orifices needed no tutorial. But Dash knew that he wanted to wait. He didn't want some desperate 'fuck', but he wanted something meaningful. Something deep, in more ways than one. He wanted that enthusiastic start to things. He wanted it to start from a place of celebration. They were not there; they were barely two steps on the road. When they had finally worked up the nerve to go out with each other, that first step on the road, in comes the asshole and Gothcunt to ruin his good time.

He was mad at them, but that feeling was juxtaposed with extreme pride. Danny had done a hard thing, a good thing, but a hard thing. He watched as the people who dragged him through the mud then begged to be saved from their dirt. Dash did not know if he could have found the strength to help them. They did not deserve it, of that he was sure. They had truly disinherited themselves from any help he should have received. Danny didn't have to do it, but he did. Dash could hardly wrap his mind around what he just saw. It was so simple, but Dash's intellect, which we have found to be bigger than he let on, was failing him.

He took another glance to the left.

It took Dash about five minutes before he found the courage to speak. The silence had been a buffer for his uncomfortable emotions, but that was the time to break through. After what Danny had gone through over the last week, Dash owed him at least a conversation on the way.

"I think you did the right thing, Danny. No, I _know_ you did the right thing. It was hard, but that was the right choice, man."

"Did I?' His voice was distant and cold. He was staring at the road ahead. His eyes did not focus on anything, but looked dead. His arms were positioned straight down. He was so still and lifeless that he looked like a crash test dummy.

Dash hoped to snap him out of it. Words weren't his strong suit, but he was going to try. "I think you did. I mean… the whole turning the other cheek thing is hard to do man, but you did it. I don't know if I've ever been strong enough to do what you did, but you are. I'm proud of you man."

Silence.

"I mean, that's heroic stuff."

"That's just it." Danny said, his voice still small. "I don't want to be a hero. I don't want the only thing people to feel about me is pride. I just want to be normal. I want people to look at me and see an equal. I-"

"I understand and want the same things Danny, When I walk down the street in my own town, people are throwing themselves at me. I can't go for more than two blocks without some bitch coming up to me, or without feeling a pair of eyes staring me up and down. That whole town looks at me with these googly-eyes because I'm good at football. It's ridiculous. I can't breathe under the scrutiny."

"You really do get me." Danny's voice was sounding more like him.

"For a second, I thought that you would leave me back there. I never been that scared in my life, seriously."

"Well, fear is something I live with every second of the day, Dash. Fear for being found out as gay, fear for being found out as a halfa. I fear for the ghost attack that I can never train and adequately prepare for. These are the scariest times I have known, Dash."

"I mean, I was never in the know about ghost stuff, but I guess… I mean… Hasn't it been really quiet lately. I mean, we live with the certainty of that Box Ghost dude, but that's just an annoyance. There's nothing to say that some big ghost event is going to happen tomorrow, in a week, in a month. Hell, it could be years before anything that even looks like a threat is seen."

"The silence is the scariest thing." Danny responded, now looking out the passenger side window, "When the Box Ghost makes a lot of noise, I can see him, hear him, and recognize the threat. When there is something out there that I cannot see and cannot know, that is the scariest."

"You don't know that there's something out there, do you?" Dash asked him. "You can only be sure of an absence."

"But I must assume a presence. I must assume that there is some entity out there scheming. And that brings me back to this situation. When I am spend time fixing things like this, my eye is not on the ball."

"I don't know what you mean." Dash was not quite understanding.

"I mean… Let me put it like this. I already showed you the maps and computers showing the ghost activity. Every second I am not focused on that, I am putting millions at risk."

"You were on a date with me though. I mean…" Dash trailed off, "You're eye was not going to be on the ball, while we were sitting watching a movie."

"Yes and that is why I hesitated so much. Amity Park is like a cage. It locks me in and removes my liberty, crushes my soul, but, at the same time, it is the thing that I have to protect the most. I was willing to take the 'risk' of leaving town with you, only because I knew that if something came up, you'd have my back. And I was right."

"Well… of course I have your back." Dash was almost offended by the notion that he would ever be disloyal to Danny. He set that aside knowing that it would take Danny time to completely, completely trust him. For someone used to being a hero, used to putting forth the appearance of strength, vulnerability, true unadulterated openness was a hard thing to show.

"It's more than just that Dash. It's… I'm sorry I ruined our date. If I hadn't have looked up the road-"

"It's not your fault, Danny." Dash responded authoritatively, "It was probably meant to happen. I mean, everything happens for a reason, right?"

"I don't know. That's a question for Clockwork."

"Yeah, I was just about to ask what you meant by that. They seemed to know exactly what you meant by that, man. I could only think of that thing from the seventies, _A Clockwork Orange_ when you said it, but a movie wouldn't have anything to do with it. Is that like a person or a place?"

"He's a ghost, Dash." Danny answered, "I didn't explain Clockwork and the Observers to you?"

"No. I think I would remember that."

Danny couldn't believe it. "Well, I guess I should now…"

* * *

Meanwhile in Tucker's car:

The silence in the car was like Sam in every way, tense and pregnant. She had just been handed her own ass by Dash, a person she did not think capable of creating a coherent thought, let alone eviscerating her. She had been embarrassed, utterly humiliated by the whole thing. It felt as if she had been laid bare, as if her flaws in form and function were told to millions. She could have died (and many of you think she should have).

Now she sat in the car, still dripping with rage. Tucker was making a concerted effort to avoid looking in her direction. He was in the left lane, so when people wanted to merge in, he had to look to the passenger's , for him, were probably the worst moments of his life. He could only take a pittance of joy from the fact that they opted for silence. Silence was glittering for him, but remember all that glitters ain't… The 'gold' turned to shit when she opened her mouth.

"You should have stopped him from going after me like that." She said, the bitchiness apparent in her tone. Tucker snapped like an autumn twig.

"Shut your fucking mouth, Sam!" Tucker yelled, "Your fucking mouth has gotten us into enough trouble."

"NO." Sam yelled back, "You just let him walk all over me."

"Good. It's about fucking time someone let you know how much of a cunt you're acting like." Tucker could not believe the words that just came out of his mouth. "You have been a nasty, stewing bitch since… since…"

"Since I caught the boy I was deeply in love with since the third grade diddling himself to men fucking on his computer screen."

"Love?" Tucker's voice got small.

"Yes," Sam said, feeling some emotions coming out, for the first time, she was crying, really crying. "I have been wanting to be with him from the start. And then he turns around and goes with Dash, you know the one who used to bully him. It's not fucking fair."

"I thought you just liked him. I didn't know it was anything like… I mean deeper than anything we ever felt for each other. I mean you act like." Tucker went from angry to full of pity for her. He was all around uncomfortable in that moment, but he listened attentively, trying to put all the facts together. It explained her attitude. He only felt lied to, and he got over it (easily, when compared to her). She felt lied to, betrayed, cheated on, and abandoned all in one moment. When she caught him in the throes of self-pleasure it was as if he said: _'Well, no, I don't love you back. I'm not capable of loving you back. You and everything like you (in function and form) turn me off. I love the same things you want from me.'_ And soon enough, when it was clear that he was with Dash, Danny said to her: _'Yeah and by the way I am in love with and want to fuck (very badly) the very person who represents, no, who IS, everything that you abhor about American life and society."_ Tucker did not excuse her from her behavior but he understood it.

"First comes love," her voice came back ringing through his head, "Then comes marriage. Then comes the baby in the baby carriage. That's I wanted. That's ALL I wanted. Me and Danny to be together the way it was supposed to be. From the beginning I had it planned out. We were going to be together."

"Well we plan, God laughs." Tucker said, forgetting his disbelief.

"Fuck that."

"But Sam, and I'm being really, really serious about now," Tucker interjected, "Did he ever express an interest in you? I mean, now that I think about everything, it was kinda obvio-"

She cut him off, "No, it wasn't."

He did not feel like proving it to her. She had a narrative set up in her head and he could not counter that.

Her voice got quiet. "I used to leave him a letter as a secret admirer. I used to leave a letter everyday. I would stick it in the bottom of the locker door and leave it out just enough for him to grab it through."

"Did he ever respond?"

"No." She answered.

"And he never told us about it. You never told me about it either, but whatever. I think he would have told us if he had a secret admirer. Even before we found out he was gay, when everything was copacetic, he would have told us. We would have laughed over the letters or tried to figure it out or something."

"You're not saying he was ripping them up?" She asked through tears.

"I'm saying that maybe he wasn't getting them in the first place." Tucker answered.

* * *

"So you mean he sees everything?" Dash was blushing, "Like every single thing?"

"Yes, even this conversation, but calm down, he doesn't care about the small things we do."

"Even when I jac-"

"He sees even that, but not being a human, he doesn't care about it. How often you cum is not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things." Danny answered. "And again, even if he watched either of us, in particular, those habits do not concern him."

"I'm embarrassed that he's seen what I used to do to you, Danny."

"Dash, I don't know how many times I have to tell you. WE BOTH enjoyed every second of that. Trust me, the way I used to cum to you doing that is proof that I wasn't a victim. Trust me on that."

"I do." Dash answered, his fear relenting greatly, "Still wish I would have found the balls to kiss you instead of just bothering you all day."

"We both do," Danny supported him in this, "But since we're being honest with each other. Let me ask you… How long have you been thinking about me like that. I mean that stuff on the playground when we were young was…"

"All the same. I always kinda wanted to be around you, but you were always around those two so I had to keep my distance."

"Oh." Danny was learning some more about his life. His life and history was something he did not have the luxury to think about.

"She always seemed to have her hooks into you. I mean you and Foley were always okay, I guess. But she had the cooties then, and she has the 'crazies' now. I mean she was always the bossy girl who no one liked, and then when she became goth in eighth grade, that really put people off wanting to be around her. You were already her best friends with her by that point."

"Sounds about right." Danny had to admit. "You know my life more than I could explain it."

"Only way to be around you or touch you was to bully you, because she could never stop that." Dash, again, showed that he had a level of perception, intellect and planning that most thought him unable to attain. "By the time eighth grade was over, I mean, hormones had been flowing for a few years. So it went from wanting friendship, to something else."

"You always wanted to be around me, huh?"

"For as long as I can fucking remember."

* * *

"Let me ask you." Tucker broke the silence with a thought that started gnawing at him. It was starting to consume his psyche, "You always kept your eyes shut firm when we were having sex. And you always, always always wanted me to keep quiet."

She recoiled and leaned back to the side, "What are you-"

"Who were you picturing having sex with?"

It was a spluttering noise, wordless, but spoke volumes.

"You were imagining it was Danny weren't you?"

"I-"

"You're a piece of work Sam. I don't think someone could even write something this crazy."

"All of those times-"

"You weren't complaining."

"And you weren't even there, just moaning. Thinking that it was Danny was the one fucking you. I don't even know what to say."

"How about nothing."

"How about: 'We're done.'"

"Go. Fine. Fuck you," She said, flippantly, as if opting for cranberry juice. She chuckled a bit.

"Oh, you have Sam, over and over, and you liked it by the way you used to squeal." Tucker retorted, "But you'll never fuck Danny."

* * *

They pulled in around the corner from Fenton Works and Danny stared at the huge building he called home as if he had never seen it before. It would be the first time Dash would be walking into the house with his parents and Jazz being around. This was something that made him profoundly uncomfortable.

"You should come in with me. Just follow me and act like a friend. They won't even notice you. Just hope that we don't bump into Jazz." Danny said.

"Fine." They emerged from the car, and looked behind them. Tucker and Sam got out of the car too.

 _'Oh no, you don't,"_ Danny thought. Having found his nerve he walked up to them."NO, you two stay out here."

"Why?" Tucker asked his emotion slipping through.

Danny looked at them in a way that made Dash back up. Danny reached up and pointed directly at Sam. Looking at Tucker in the eye, but still pointing at her accusingly, he spoke, "Because her big fat mouth. She damages everything she touches and I won't have her fucking this up. You two stay in the car."

"You're right." Tucker said. "We'll wait…"

* * *

Danny walked up the step brownstone steps and put the key into the door. His nerves made him jiggle them a little. No, actually, he was quivering like a leaf. Dash put his land on Danny's shoulder.

"Relax." Dash said in a soothing voice, he didn't know he was capable of.

He felt the tension melt away in his boyf's shoulders. Danny opened the door and locked it behind them and Dash stepped into the familiar environs. The 'house' felt more comfortable than his own to be honest. His own nerves melted away as he stepped into the living area, until he saw Mister Fenton emerge from the kitchen, sandwich on a saucer in hand, orange jumpsuit and all.

 _"Oh, shit."_ Dash thought. _"Just don't notice. Just don't notice."_

"Danny-boy," Jack called out, approaching, "Hello, son."

Jack arrived on the spot, and instantly pulled his son into a hug. Naturally, as if he were expecting it, he handed the saucer to Dash who held it. His hands now free, he wrapped his arms totally around his son. Dash looked on, slightly jealous, but happy for his boyfriend. He looked down at the sandwich on the plate. It was wheat bread, but the healthfulness ended there, with an obscene amount of meat, mayonnaise, and mustard in between the slices.

"Hey, Dad, what's up?" Danny asked into his father's chest.

"I'm just glad to see you, son." Jack answered, "We had a good time at the conference."

"I would love to hear about it, but you're crushing me." Danny managed to squeak out. "I can't breathe."

"Oh." Jack relinquished him. Danny and Dash wondered internally how the hell his mother could deal with the man's size. Unbeknownst to Dash, the man was more muscle than anything under that jumpsuit. He continued to look at the man to see what Danny had inherited. It certainly was not the frame/body structure. Danny had gotten the great hair and the blue eyes from his father. Probably the package underneath too. For that gift to the world, Dash would be eternally grateful.

"Oh, how are you, young man?" Jack noticed that Dash was there. "Thanks for holding the sandwich."

"No problem, Mister Fenton." Dash said, handing the sandwich back over.

"I didn't catch your name," Jack said. "I recognize you from someplace, though."

"Dash Baxter," he said, nervously, "My name is Dash Baxter."

Jack reached out his right hand, holding the saucer in his left. Dsh reached out and shook the hand firmly. Jack gave him a look of investigation, not quite suspicion.

"Oh, you're the quarterback on the team?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir."

"So long as you're not a ghost. Are you?" Jack took a quasi-menacing step towards him. Dash, determined to appear and be unintimidated, did not move, quite pleased with himself.

"No," Danny stepped in between them. "Dad, I already checked him. He only has 1.7 F's [Fentons] so he's human thoroughly."

"Good," Jack stepped back. "So, what are you doing here?" Jack asked rudely, he did not hear his tone. He never did.

"Dash is interested in ghost-hunting. Well one ghost in particular. He wants to capture Inviso-Bill." Danny lied adeptly, "I've been training him for the last few weeks. He's actually really good at it."

"Oh really?" Jack boomed with delight, "Why didn't you say so? We need young people like you to take over the reigns soon. Danny here is a good ghost hunter. He's good with the technology, but we need people like you with the great build for hunting them down. That handshake was proof of your strength, boy. I'm sure that Inviso-Bill ghost won't be able to fend you off."

"Thank you, sir."

"Yes," Jack answered, "And I have been looking for a good partner for my son."

"I beg your pardon?" Dash asked, hoping a floor would open up and swallow him. That statement spoke too much towards reality.

"Yes, I have." Jack continued, "I never thought Sam would be good at this, Tucker has his nose in that damn cell phone all day. If Danny's been training you for weeks, I know that you're good. What are you up to now?"

"Ectoplasmic titrations." Danny answered.

"Good, you still have some more work to do, but you'll be there soon, probably by the middle of November. Danny'll show you everything by then."

The unintended innuendo was not lost on Dash. "Yes sir." He responded.

"Danny will show it all to you. Have you done any of the nighttime experiments yet?" Jack said, still thrilled that he found a partner for his son.

"Nighttime experimentation?" Dash asked.

"You remember Dash. We have to do this at night sometimes because that is when the energy is the highest. We did a few of them, still have some more to do, Dad." Danny answered for him.

"Oh right, we did." Dash knew the flow of lying about time spent with a boy. It was second nature.

"Well, you'll need the ops center, the lab all to yourselves when you're busy. Where have you been doing the work?"

"In my bedroom." Danny answered. "I know that it's not the most professional way to-"

"No, son." Jack answered, "We need people, if do it while you… how do you young people say it now- while you chill out in your room is how you do it, I won't stop you. Just put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on your door when you two are busy at it and we'll keep out. Just don't make too much noise." Jack finished.

"Noise, sir?" Dash had to ask.

"Oh, I get so worked up when I'm busy with a ghost that I shout. I mean, I don't mind, but the others around don't want to hear it. The walls are pretty soundproof though, so as long as you're not banging on the walls we won't hear you."

 _"This isn't fucking real right now. Is it?"_ Dash asked himself inside. _"Seriously, this shit is wild, like a cartoon or something."_

Jack continued, "Well. Glad you're aboard young man. Enjoy this, these are the best times. Two young people getting together and pursuing a passion makes me happy. I hope you stick with it, young man. Again, I really think you'll make a good partner for my son. So long as you've got his back, I'm all for it."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, one last thing." Jack's voice turned serious, scary, and authoritative in a second. His smiling eyes turned into death lasers as he spoke to Dash, "If you try to mess with my daughter, you won't have to worry about chasing and hunting ghosts. YOu'll be one of them. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Good," Jack's voice returned to its normal level. I'm going to go upstairs and eat my ham sandwich. Jack started towards the stairs. Dash got the will to say something to him.

"Mister Fenton," he started, Jack stopped dead and looked back down the stairs at Dash. The football star continued, "I am in a committed, very loving relationship with someone that I cannot live without. I could never be unfaithful, sir. And I would never pursue your daughter, sir. I have too much respect for you, and too much respect for the person I love."

"He's a keeper, Danny. Don't let this one slip away." Jack said, "Someone who can make and hold a commitment is who we need in this business. Train him and partner up with him, Danny. You won't regret it." Jack walked up the stairs.

"Uh…" Dash started, looking over at the ghostboy, "Thanks. That was about as close to the truth as we could have come for now. Did he just say I can stay in your room, overnight?"

"Yes." Danny said.

"I mean wow."

"Well, he doesn't have anything to suspect. You can't think that there is a fire if you don't see flames or smell smoke. So, might you be coming over more often?"

"As often as I can."

"I would really like that," Danny said, "Even if it's only sleep."

* * *

They walked down the stairs into the lab after they both took a trip to the bathroom. Dash had only been there a few times, so its immense size and number of tools still served to impressed him. He had not seen most of it, and bigger appliances were under tarps in the back. It would not have surprised him to find a vehicle in the space. That's just how massive it was. The building took up three quarters of the block, so many things indeed could be hidden down there. That thought got him to thinking what he could create down there clandestinely. It was nothing sinister, but the thought excited him.

Danny took him by the hand and led him to the biggest contraption in the place. Like the others of similar proportions, it was covered in a tarp, that, itself, had collected no dust. Danny let go of him to remove the covering. After a bit of doing, that was accomplished.

Dash stepped back in awe to see what amounted to a spaceship to him. He walked around it, starting in the front, looking in through the windshield. The windshield itself was a modern miracle. It was a perfect bubble of clear glass that allowed a very wide field of vision that easily exceeded 180°. Underneath were some strange looking headlights that he was sure had an additional functionality. Knowing the Fentons, it was probably some sort of weapon. Looking in, he saw a leather bench seat, like a car from the 1950's, complete with seat-belts. Behind that area was a wall peppered with flashing lights and buttons. It reminded him of the cockpit of an airplane.

The space and seats only looked able to fit three people at the most. If he was getting into this thing, he would be cozy indeed. He walked to the driver's side and looked at the exterior.

It was white. The whole exterior was white on that side, with a cutout for the door. He walked behind the thing and only saw what amounted to jet engines sticking out of the back of the monstrosity, complete with the green color that had readily been associated with ghosts. The passenger side was a mirror image of the driver's side. It had no wheels.

"Um, what is this thing?" Dash asked.

"This," Danny started raising his arms, as if to present him with a gift, "... is the Specter Speeder. It's made for going into the Ghost Zone, it can reach speeds that are not possible in the physical world."

"All of the physics stuff goes out of the window, huh?" Dash asked.

"Pretty much," Danny answered, "Oh, and as a human, you are invulnerable while within the Ghost Zone."

"You mean, we're going in that green swirly thing?" Dash looked over at the open and operational portal.

"I didn't bring you down here and show you this thing for no reason. You and me, we're going to see Clockwork."

"I mean, shouldn't you bring them?" The fear in Dash's voice was obvious. He was scared of too much on Earth to go into this Ghost Zone place unafraid. "I mean, it's not like this stuff really concerns me."

"Dash," Danny said, realizing his boyfriend's fright, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes, of course, I trust you completely." Dash answered without hesitation.

"I wouldn't put you in any danger."

"I know you wouldn't," the blond added.

"Trust me on this one." Danny implored, grabbing his hand.

* * *

They were both strapped in securely. As Dash had thought, it was quite a snug fit. He quite liked it, to be honest. Danny pushed the button that made the Specter Speeder come to life. It sounded like an engine roaring to life, and that fact comforted Dash. It sounded enough like his car to make him feel safe.

He sat up and grabbed an inconsequential part of the console in front of him. The color drained from his face, and hands. He was going into something unknown and legitimately scary. Danny seemed to be comfortable enough, but he was also a damn superhero. Danny had probably seen things that would have made Dash pass out from sheer horror. What did the most to assuage his misgivings was the constant reassurance that Danny's presence gave him. It was not that Danny showed no fear, it was simply that Danny was there.

"It takes a couple of minutes to warm up." Danny said, "It's not just an engine, but computers too. The whole thing takes a few minutes for both systems to get in sync."

"What kind of fuel does this thing run on?"

"Ectoplasm has a higher octane than jet fuel. It burns completely. Again, it is the thing that can be created and destroyed. It burns completely clean, no smoke, no soot, no gasses produced in the Ghost Zone."

"Then why the hell won't you sell this stuff?" Dash said, "It would shut those damn environmentalists up. I could do without the yelling about trees and carbon and whatever."

"On earth, this stuff is really toxic. It has a pH of negative four."

"Hold on. I thought that was like a zero to fourteen thing," Dash countered, apparently having paid at least some attention in chemistry. "How are you going into negative territory?"

"It's more acidic than most scientists will ever encounter, so instead of muddying the system we go beyond to include negative numbers in our calculations. Sulfuric Acid can melt through a carpet, this stuff can melt through a steel beam."

"So, how can you contain it?" Dash asked, impressed with this science lesson.

"In Fentonite." Danny responded.

"Of course."

"You already know that modesty is not something this family does well. If we come up with an idea we stamp 'Fenton' on it."

"Well, what can I stamp 'Baxter' on?" Dash asked.

"Me." Danny answered meekly, his voice coming out like a gentle whisper in the wilderness. The both of them started blushing, realizing what that statement really meant.

* * *

The Specter Speeder was warmed up and ready to go. All of the computers made their beeping noises to signal that everything was in good working order.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Dash said grabbing onto Danny's right leg. Dash didn't want to show it, but he was very scared to go into that green swirling portal. He was with Danny so he could go, that did not mean he was going to like it.

The Specter Speeder entered the Ghost Zone at speed. Dash could not say that he looked. He kept his eyes shut for a moment. Danny looked over and saw his boyfriend's severe discomfort. He couldn't let go of the yoke so he decided to speak to him instead.

"Dash, it's actually beautiful out here." Danny said. "You said that green was your favorite color, right?"

"Yes," Dash answered, laughing a little bit, "Green is my favorite color, even though soon it might be the color of your flesh." Dash's grip on the leg relaxed a bit, in fact it turned from holding to caressing. Danny quite like it, and hoped that his hand would venture further up.

Blushing a bit, Danny replied, "You'll see everything about me in due time, but for now, enjoy your favorite color. Open you eyes and look at this beautiful world that all of five living human beings have ever seen. Don't worry we're impervious in this thing. And oh did I explain human beings in the Ghost Zone?"

"No."

"Figures. That's why you're so scared." Danny answered.

"I'm _not_ scared." Dash protested vigorously through gritted teeth, "I am _not._ "

"Dash, it's alright." Danny answered, "We've already cried to each other. I mean it's okay to be scared around me. I'll tell you this, you're the only person I feel safe showing my emotions to. I hope that you feel safe showing your emotions to me."

"I'm sorry," Dash answered, "It was how I was raised. I'm a man and I'm supposed to keep those emotions inside. I'm not supposed to emote especially not in front of or with another man. But…"

"But what?"

"But… you're right. You are the only person I feel safe showing my emotions to." Dash answered. The more he expressed himself, the easier self-expression became. In other words, Danny made him feel more comfortable than he did in his own home, or alone in the locker room, or at anytime when left alone with his own thoughts.

"Thank you." Danny said, "I appreciate that. I've never had anyone tell me that they trust me before."

Dash's eyes shot open, his fear being forgotten. He looked to his left to see his boyfriend's face. Dash was both incensed and confused by that revelation. "What the fuck? What do you mean that no one trusts you. I mean come one. You're steady and responsible and good-natured. All you have done is prove that you are trustworthy and someone I can have confidence in." Dash felt a bit of warmth in his cheeks when he finished speaking. He could have never thought of an instance where he gushed like that about anyone, not even himself. He could not even remember a time when he gushed about football that way.

"I'm just glad you like me," Danny said, starting to really like Dash's intellect along with his emotion and physique, "but Sam and Tucker are convinced that I lied to them from day one. My older sister thinks I'm some sort of victim of my parents. She thinks that I'm maladjusted or something because of what my parents do for a living. My parents also think I need someone's help to survive. You saw how my father warmed to you just then."

"I actually thought it was cool." Dash said, "I get what you're saying, but I mean, it's just proof that he loves you and wants you to be safe. I mean the access he wants me or I guess is ok for me to have to you... I think he knows more about you than he lets on. He might know and might have made peace with your sexuality and whatnot. I mean, if he ever borrowed your laptop or used the PC in your room for something, I can only imagine the filth he saw.

"Nope." Danny answered, "He might have said a lot just then, but he meant it in a literal, chaste way. And no, I keep my porn seperate."

"Fine, and I meant all of that literally. I really think all of those thing about you. I do like you. I more than like you."

"I more than like you too."

Dash's arm moved up Danny's leg a bit; it wasn't purposeful, but it made Danny squirm in a good way. There was a hint of a groan too.

"I'm sorry," Dash said. "Didn't mean it."

"It's not fair." Danny answered, "Even when you aren't trying, you make me feel good. Fuck."

"Don't worry, you have the same effect on me, so let's call it a stalemate. No cumming, while we're on our way to this Clockwork dude. No creaming your jeans, my friend."

"Fuck you." Danny responded.

"Ok, put this thing in park." Dash said.

"First of all, I can't. Second, this ain't enough room. Third, I thought fucking in the car was like something that happened after many months. We've only been dating for…"

"A week." Dash answered.

"Has it really only been a week?" Danny answered, posing his own question "I feel like we have something deeper than seven days. Well, that overshadowing thing showed me your soul, literally."

"Exactly. So I am going to say we've been together many months and that fucking in a vehicle is in the cards."

"Pervert."

"Yes , indeed, GhostTwink88," Dash, forsook all of his prejudice about the Ghost Zone and decided to take a look out of the window. "Oh my God…" He said, really whispering, his jaw dropping.

"What?" Danny asked.

"The Ghost Zone is really, really beautiful. I mean it's like we're in outer space." Dash looked down at his hand and delighted in the soft green glow that shone on his skin. It was, as he said, just as dark as the cosmos, but the tint was greenish-black rather than blue. He couldn't believe that he had his eyes closed for any of this, and he had to admit that this place interested him more than earth ever could. He had a special affinity for this place that he could never explain. At first he was afraid of how he felt about it, but now he embraced the beauty and mystique that was the Ghost Zone.

"I told you this place was great. And I forgot to tell you that as a human being, not a ghost, you're invincible to attack. Nothing out here can hurt you. You can walk through walls, disappear, and fly. You're invulnerable to everything."

"Just like nothing on Earth can hurt you." Dash replied.

"Exactly." Danny replied, "So when I'm Danny Fenton out here, I'm fine."

* * *

They arrived.

Clockwork's lair was of great interest to Dash because of its design. It was a giant gothic grandfather clock, with lime green ethereal gears around it. It was adorned with with time-related objects such as clocks, gears, and bells.

"Clockwork and his lair are immune to alternate time paths and time paradoxes." Danny said, landing on the island. "So, if he chooses to help us, we have to make sure that the solution does not interfere with the linear flow of time from that point."

"Well, all we have to do is stop one sperm cell from reaching that egg." Dash answered, having this completely figured out, "That is if he helps us."

They walked into his lair.

It was like they walked into the middle of the Parthenon in the middle of the night. Clockwork was standing at the far end of the room caught their attention. Danny, in the form of Phantom, walked in front of Dash.

Clockwork appearing as child also started to close the gap.

Dash squinted. Something was familiar about the figure that was approaching them.

"I was expecting you." Clockwork said.

The gap was closed and Dash looked at the figure.

For the second time that day his jaw dropped.

Looking at the ghost (still in the form of a child) directly in the eye, "Oh my god, it's you." He recognized him.

"Wait?" Danny asked, looking back and forth, "You two know each other?"

"Yes," Dash answered

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	20. Twenty

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER NINETEEN

Enjoy!

* * *

"I was expecting you." Clockwork said.

The gap was closed and Dash looked at the figure.

For the second time that day his jaw dropped.

Looking at the ghost (still in the form of a child) directly in the eye, "Oh my god, it's you." He recognized him.

"Wait?" Danny asked, looking back and forth, "You two know each other?"

"Yes," Dash answered.

"Anyone care to explain?" Danny asked.

"You were real. I knew you were real. I could tell that those weren't just dreams. I could tell that you weren't just imaginary." Dash sort of whispered to himself.

"Dreams? Imagination?" Danny asked. "What do you mean, Dash?"

"Well, when I was a kid, I mean…" Dash changed his methodology mid-sentence, "Did you have imaginary friends as a kid?"

"Of course, didn't everybody?" Danny answered, "Well, sure," Dash started, "But that is what was different. I knew he was real because I could touch him. He was always around me, watching. I never thought it was creepy. It was more like he was looking after me. He was like a guardian."

"Clockwork," Danny asked, "Could you please just explain all this.

"And I remember," Dash's voice got low and circumspect, "I remember you used to be in my dreams to. I could touch you. You would talk to me, I mean I remember. You never spoke to me in English, always French. But why? You didn't want my father to understand, I guess. Why after all these years do I see you again? And why here and now? Why didn't I know your name?"

Clockwork continued to look at them, saying nothing. The silence was heavy to all three of them. It was awkward to the ones who lived in the human world. Clockwork changed into his adult form, scepter in hand, and readied himself to speak.

He was not nervous, far from it, he was formulating the words. Even he, the ghost who knew and saw everything on earth and in the Ghost Zone, has to pick his words. He could change the course of history, but he had to be careful not to alter their mindsets outside of a reasonable range. He had news for them, information that would change how each viewed himself and the other. He had information for them that dealt with their very beings. He had been waiting for them to come not for just a couple of weeks or from their births in the 1990's, but for an eternity.

He had taken great pains to reveal himself in a way that would not jar them, especially Dash. He knew that the blond one had been living his life in relative normalcy since those days he appeared to him as a child. Clockwork knew he would have to explain the reason he came in the first place to comfort him, why he had to leave, and what it all meant in that linear thing we call time.

In other words, Clockwork had something big to say. And it's impact was not just for the two of them. It must be stated here, and made completely manifest again that if the Ghost Zone and Earth were both involved, the matter was one of higher than grave impact. Humanity on earth called things grave when it dealt just with situations of life and death. Ghosts called situations 'grave' if the destruction of the Zone they called home was within the realm of possibility. When both realms were involved, as was the case in that moment, things had gone beyond 'grave', and beyond gravity, in a manner of speaking.

Clockwork had been around since very near the beginning, and, in that time, had never known anything more important to say. He knew of human nature and knew of the nature of youth. His words would need to be contemporary yet have the force of great oratory behind them. They would have to be flashy, yet substantive. These were teenagers, his audience, but they were teenagers who had had to grow up quickly.

They were teenagers who did not have that transition to adulthood. Childhood was rudely supplanted by the cares of adulthood. Adolescence had not been given the time to grow, blossom, and wither in anticipation of the next season. It had not. Moreover, in Danny's case, adolescence had not been planted at all. His very life went from innocent to fully realized. He was doomed not have a decent time as a teenager by virtue (if you can call it that) of his parents profession.

Danny's teenage years were predestined to be uprooted. The same fate befell them, just differently. This ghost, crime fighter thing had ruined the natural destruction of innocence that defined adolescence. His childish nature was supposed to fall away gently, but were ripped away. His ordeal in the last two years had started with him being stripped of all his clothes.

Fortunately for him (and the town), Danny was able to walk through the best few years with a commendable amount of poise and dignity. He rebuilt his armor. Before, when he was just a child, all he had was a thin covering called innocence. Now, having had to mature completely in that moment he met death, he put on the armor of knowledge. He had taken some hits in the two years since he died, but, hey, a couple of chinks in the armor was the price of life.

Clockwork realized all of these things about the two, so he waited to see how they would react in his presence. He had known how hysterical Danny would be and how reminiscent Dash would be. He had seen it two thousand years ago, and he had seen it two minutes before they arrived, but the time had come.

The stars and planets were aligned. The two who were supposed to present themselves before him had arrived, and the Observants did their duty with more fear and relish in these minutes. Clockwork felt that even with billions of years to prepare, the revelation of the truth was still a duty to dread. He had been dreading it vaguely for so long, and abhorring it in the most acute sense for the last few weeks.

He decided to end the silence, using his very powerful voice.

He remained as an adult, full of power and force, and spoke.

"I have been expecting to see you for a long time. A very long time." He started.

"Do you mean me? Or Danny? Or both of us?" Dash asked, having taken the time to regain his voice and the will to use it.

"The both of you. There will be celebrations tonight in all corners of the Ghost Zone because of your common arrival here. The two of you have been expected since the beginning." Clockwork said.

"Well, I am sure that you have been awaiting us since time began, but was is this about celebrations?" Danny asked, "Celebrating what?"

"The end is coming." Clockwork said.

"End?!" Danny and Dash asked together, nervously anticipating the answer.

"You see, you humans have always been afraid of what is called the 'end'. In the human world, on Earth, in all your literature, and all the things you believe, you see the end as this destructive, evil thing."

"Well, yes." Dash answered. "The end is not something people like to think about. And when we do, we get really depressed about it."

"Dash," Clockwork called his name, aloud, "The end is not something despicable and destructive. It is merely the closing of the gap between the physical Earth and the Ghost Zone. It is simply these entities coming together."

"Through death?" Dash asked.

"No, but through life. The gulf between life and death has been closed by the two of you."

"I don't follow." Danny was attentive, but confused.

"In the beginning, the Observants say that the end would be the coming together of all sorts of natures. The ghost would be on par with the living. The physical and spiritual would be on the same plane as opposed to the separation that they occupy now. The end is not something that will destroy humanity or ghosts. It will just fill man with more spirituality than he can muster now, and will make the ghosts more humane than they ever thought possible. Since the beginning mortals have been afraid of death, and ghosts, in the same way, have been afraid of that which lives."

"Afraid of people?" Dash asked, "Come on, they're not afraid of us. When they transcend the Ghost Zone and come into the physical world, the humans are the ones running away. We lose our heads. I can't imagine that they are afraid of us."

"They are, young man." Clockwork remarked, again showing a familiarity with Dash that intrigued Danny immensely. "Those evil ghosts who try to dominate and enslave the Earth are only doing it because they are afraid of humanity. They are afraid of the speed and power of how you think. They are afraid of humanity's power to control his own thoughts, make progress, and reason. Humanity has dominated and effectively used his realm in a way that ghosts can never do with this place."

"So what does this all mean, and why are we so special?" Dash asked, "Danny is special to me in a way I can't find words for, but what do we have to do with this whole changing of space and time thing?"

Danny lowered his head, embarrassed to show how much he blushed at Dash's unashamed confession of love here.

"Well, I have to reveal your real natures to you." Clockwork answered, "I have seen great feats done by humans and by ghosts, and I have seen the future where they work together. I have seen the future where humanity and spirituality exist in the same place at the same time."

"But when?"

"For hundreds of years now, ghosts have waiting in anticipation of all of these things. The human beings who were gifted to see what you see now also followed and recorded these signs. In your realm, they call it the 'end of times'. Here we call it the Convergence."

"So what does that have to do with us?" Danny asked, "That sounds beautiful, almost like a religion or something of the sort. As nice as that sounds, it doesn't sound as if it has a thing to do with me, the thoroughly unpopular closeted ghost boy and Dash, the inversely popular but deeply closeted football star. As relatively unremarkable as we are, I can't imagine that the hopes and fears of not one, but two planes of existence rest at our feet."

"Exactly." Dash agreed, understanding the gist but not the ornamentation of the preceding statement. He continued, "Seriously, I mean I know I'm not the only person with my set of circumstances. A blond quarterback in the Midwest of America ain't exactly a new or different phenomenon. There's hundreds, maybe thousands of people just like me just in my state, so why me?"

"You are not the same as all those other ones," Clockwork answered, "You, the two of you, meet all of the requirements set forth in the prophecies of old. You, and only you two are the ones that time itself has been expecting. I know that what I am about to tell you may seem foreign and bigger than you may have ever thought possible. But, I need you to listen to me."

The two quieted themselves, even silencing their thoughts. Danny had only seen Clockwork with a stern expression, but his composure was even more austere now than he had seen. Austerity was all that Danny would see for the new part of the conversation. The beginning had him lost and traveling in circles in the desert. He hoped to understand the next part of the speech from Clockwork so he concentrated like he had never done before. He looked over at Dash, and saw the other focusing in a way that he imagined was only reserved for football.

"As you stand before me," Clockwork said, "It is the first time that the two kings as prophesied appeared together. In your forms now, you exist as the two kings, each with your kingdoms rooted in different realities."

Dash broke the silence, "King? I am not king."

"And neither am I." Danny answered, "Besides the fact that we are both just middle class kids, we come from a country where we dropped monarchy like a bad habit."

"Even now you hold hands." Clockwork remarked, and lo and behold, they were holding hands.

"The most powerful ghost that is in existence stands before me, King of the Ghost Zone."

"What?" Danny felt like someone punched him squarely in the chest, "Me? The most power ghost there is? That can't be right."

"That is what the prophecy says," Clockwork answered, "For the chief in Strength and Dignity amongst us shall be born of a woman. And shall come to have Strength, Power, and Dignity as a Ghost, when he has behind him fourteen years."

"What, but I mean-" Danny could not muster a coherent response to that. He fit the conditions set out in that, but he couldn't be the only one on Earth who did? Could he?

Clockwork continued, "And he shall embody the natures of Humanity and Ghost in one body. His nature shall be halved, and he shall die, yet live."

"That sounds like you." Dash said, whispering .

"And you," Clockwork turned his attention to Dash. "King of the Earth."

"King of the Earth? Ha, I'm barely king of the football team." Dash remarked. "He will be of gentle birth and speak the tongues of past, present, future, the tongues of the elite, the normal, those who seek the ascendancy. He will speak that which people strive to learn."

"But that's not possible because he only speaks two languages" Danny interjected, "He only speaks French and English."

"Actually…" Dash interjected, taking an acute displeasure in bursting his boyfriend's bubble. "I mean Kwan is my best platonic friend… since I was two years old… something had to rub off… I mean… I'm not like a native speaker, but I can you know pass a test… if I had to."

"Don't tell me…" Danny answered astounded at Dash's talents of language.

"我说中文" Dash said fluently, no American accent or stuttering detectable. (I speak Chinese.)

Danny's jaw dropped, much the same way it would as if Dash opened his coat and made a dove fly out. Danny only stood and marveled at his boyfriend as Clockwork continued, simply using the words that all ghosts knew so well.

"Weren't you going to tell me?"

"You didn't ask." Dash sort of shrugged.

"And the King of the Earth will be strong and virile. He shall move men with his strength and deeds. He shall be the only one who knows the King of the Ghost Zone for his name's sake. He shall eclipse the Ghost King in presence but will be one with him in all other things, mind, body, heart, soul."

"We-"

"So," Clockwork stopped reciting the prophetic message, "All throughout the Ghost Zone we saw the signs. We saw a light that we never saw here before, then we realized it was true. We saw when the two of you became one-"

"But we haven't had sex." Danny interjected, louder than he should have. The next word came out quieter, "Yet."

"It wasn't just that," Dash looked at Danny and said, "It's the small things. It's us sharing a bed, and hugging and talking. It's us kissing, whether they are pecks on the cheek or full out French. It's when we talk to each other. It's when I can touch you when you're intangible. It's when you overshadow me and I can see the beauty that's inside you. I still have questions, but if all of this is the truth, I like it."

"I- You're right, every and all things from the time we were born has been leading to this truth that you and me are meant for each other. I think that we had both known it for a long time now." He fell into his comfortable place, tucked under Dash's strong arms. Dash let him into the embrace as a matter of instinct. He continued to speak, but now to Clockwork. "I can't deny any of this, but what happens from here? Now that we know we're actually these so called Kings what do we do?" Danny asked.

"You go from here and build the peace and love that have been sought since time was time and existence was existence."

"But…" Dash started, "I'm not a perfect man and I know that as perfect for me as Danny is, he's not perfect either. What happens if we have a fight. If this thing is as natural as you say, we're going to fight at some point. If the fate of humanity and spirituality as we know it are resting on our shoulders-"

"Tell me plainly," Clockwork commanded, "Do you love him?"

"Yes," they both answered viscerally and in unison.

"Good," Clockwork answered, "Neither nature is perfect, but the attachments of love melt the tensions of imperfection, inconsistencies, and incongruity. If you love each other as much and as viscerally as you say, no argument, no quibble, no quarrel will drive you asunder. I warn you, the times ahead of you may try your patience, they may test your endurance, but your steadfastness one to another has been ordained and testified to by time itself."

"What?" Dash asked.

"Your love, being supernatural has a staying power that worst parts of humanity and those evil ghosts will try to wreck. So long as you two stay committed and talk to each other, there will be no problem that you cannot overcome."

"What about when I die?" Dash answered. "I am only a human, so one day I have to die."

"The Kings shall enjoy eternal life," Clockwork replies, "So says the prophecy."

"I'm immortal now?" Dash asked, his eyes wide.

"Yes. Your name and person are henceforth immortal. You are the keeper of the Ghost King, for a spirit must be wrapped in flesh to have be real, and a body must have a spirit to live. The union between you is the meaning of life, and life continues forever as you shall."

"Whoa…" That was all Dash could muster, "Will I age? The ideas of life and love, you Dash being life, and you Danny being love, are timeless, ageless. You two can transcend time, age as you please, it is all at your control."

"Oh shit," Dash said, "You mean like I have powers now?"

"Yes." He said.

"But Clockwork, all of these things were true when I. And to you before, why did you wait until now to tell me?" Danny asked.

"Alone," Clockwork started, "On the day you died, you became a spirit without a body. Dash, the way your parents treated you, you were a body without a spirit. The two of you complete each other, and the truth that I have told you today would have been as nothing to one of you without the other."

"So that is why I would see you when I was a child?" Dash answered, "You were protecting me in a way."

"Yes, the Observants and I saw that in the beginning, your parents would be the first ones to pose a threat to the prophecy. My job was to watch, I could not get in the way of fate, by I could make sure that it went smoothly. I looked on with sadness as they did what amounted to their duty in crushing you, or trying to. The human will to survive in You was something that we saw in the heavens long ago. By the time you were ten, we knew that everything was going as it should. So, I left you, knowing that in due course, I would see you again."

"And here I am." Dash said.

"So, Clockwork?" Danny asked.

"Yes,"

"We can go back into time and change things?"

"Yes, so long as you change nothing about the nature of yourselves. The rules of time still apply as ever they did. Every step you take, every move you make will have one or more consequences. You must make very sure that you understand them and you must be careful to control things."

"So, does that mean- Clockwork, am I more powerful than you?" Danny asked.

"Yes, and you always were. The nature of your strength now is that you are combined with that which completes you." Clockwork answered.

"I guess…" Dash hesitated, "I mean, I don't know. I'm new to this. There's no need for your help on what we came to you for. If you're saying that we can move through space and time like no other beings can, I-"

"I know why you have come to me. Your contemporaries have gotten themselves into one of your human problems and want a way out."

"Yes." Danny asked.

"And you want to help them?" Clockwork asked for reassurance.

"Yes," Danny said. "As much as the two of them have put me through hell, as much as they have hurt me, I think that it is right to help them, if I can. After what you have said about the nature of life and how precious it is, I can't bear to think that Sam is willing to snuff one out. I mean, I know that a woman has the right to it, but I guess I think it's wrong. I don't see Sam or Tucker as the victims in this, but the child. They were irresponsible, but who should have to pay for that, not the little one."

"You're not making a good case." Clockwork remarked.

"I know," Danny answered, "But what I am saying is that Sam, to spite me or Tucker, or herself really, is willing to make the child pay the price. All I am asking is for that there was no transaction in the first place."

Dash could not have put it any better himself.

"You want me to use my power to stop your friends from making a mistake?" Clockwork asked, voice even and calm.

"It takes two cells to collide to make a new person," Danny explained, "If we can just stop those two cells from colliding together, we can…"

"In this," Clockwork replied readily, "You are asking me to make an exception to the rule. Without this pregnancy, without them catching your eye on the road this afternoon, you would not be here. None of this would be possible without that moment that conception took place."

"But what if?," Dash supposed, "And I don't know that I am anywhere near right, since this was fate, and since no matter what happened, you were meant to tell us… And since we are, in this moment free from the normal rules of time… Won't it actually work?"

"What?" Danny looked up and asked his boyfriend.

"What I mean is that things are different now. Time is a different thing for you and me now. Since we know that we are able to go back in time, and since we were Kings of our realities always, aren't we now immune from the whole thing. The whole timeline of events that led to us knowing is unnecessary now. By going back in time, we already know of the power we have back then."

"Oh shit," It was Danny's turn to swear aloud, "I think he's right. Clockwork, the second we use our powers, that means that we are aware of them right?"

"Yes." The Time Ghost answered.

"And when we are aware of them, we are conscious of them going forward and going back?"

"Yes." Clockwork, in that moment saw and understood their plans. He thought out all of the consequences, but decided not to steer them in any direction."

"So, right now, since we know about the powers we have, this process, this long and drawn out process that led us here, the process that started with this pregnancy is unnecessary."

"Yes."

"Our limitation in these powers is that we cannot, in anyway change ourselves."

"Yes." Clockwork answered a third time.

"So can we help them?" Dash asked.

"Only if we separate them from time now, so that they are aware that we are changing something." Danny figured.

"I'm confused again." Dash acknowledged.

"When we fix this for them, we have to tell them in the present. That kills the possibility that we change the present. If we bring them into a place where time does not occur and change the past, we will change only the narrow aspect we manipulate." Danny explained.

"Where is not affected by time?" Dash asked.

"Right here." Danny said. "Time isn't moving while we are in Clockwork's midst."

* * *

Sam, Tucker and Dash looked on from Clockwork's lair as Danny entered the past. Clockwork left the four of them alone, returning to his duties confident that Danny and Dash had the wherewithal to navigate time safely. He had more faith in them than they had in themselves, but, hey, he had seen it in its entirety already.

The date that Danny went back to was one that had been inconsequential to the gay couple, but seismic for the (now ex-) interracial one. Sam stood in stark silence. It was a welcome change for them all, and meant that things would probably go smoother. Tucker looked on in amazement as Danny crossed that fearsome threshold of time and entered the past. Dash was amazed too, but in a different way. It was not so much that Danny could do these amazing things. He was Danny fucking Phantom after all. It was that he was actually did do it for them.

Dash still had half a mind to kick Foley's ass and smack 'Gothcunt', but he restrained himself. He had seen the look of horror on Danny's face when he thought that he had hurt Tucker before. He knew that if he hurt Tucker or Sam (though,he would never actually smack a girl), that Danny would dump him. He couldn't bear a reality away from Fenton, so he simply breathed calmly. It was a very fortunate thing that his jaw clenched shut. He could not imagine what he would have said to them knowing that Danny was unaware.

In a way, he felt whipped. He felt forced into a certain was of behaving. Granted, the way he had to behave now was more civilized. He knew that he was still in charge, but giving up some of his power felt…

He didn't know how it felt. In any other circumstance he would be kicking and screaming, but Danny made it worth it. If he was going to be whipped, he'd let Danny do it, to a certain, minimal, but not totally unpleasant extent. Something about letting Danny take charge was not totally foreign to him. For the longest, Dash exerted great physical dominance over the smaller teen. Danny exerting some influence would not be all bad, and in fairness, some reciprocity was overdue. So he held his tongue.

They looked into the time that Danny just waded into. It was even time stamped for them.

Friday, August 11, 21:35

The recently broken up couple looked at the date and realized exactly what had happened.

They remembered.

They were frisky.

They were impatient.

They were ready to fuck.

Sam found her modesty and stared down at the green floor, blushing under her makeup. Tucker also looked about avoiding the portal in front of them. Dash looked on to make sure that Danny was safe.

* * *

Danny found himself in the past.

He was in Tucker's room. The room was empty, the door was closed, but the lights were on. The bed had been made, and the room itself was remarkably, uncharacteristically clean. It was as clean as if someone was going to be staying with him. The bed had extra pillows, and extra fluffy, black towels were rolled up on the bedside table, next to the digital clock. He looked at the alarm clock. The date and time were on display.

09:35 PM

8/11

He could hear some commotion coming from the other side of the door. It was still quite a distance away, so he continued his inspection of the room. He inhaled deeply. He could have sworn that the place had been 'febreezed' to within an inch of its life. It smelled good, but it was as if Tucker wanted to cover up a small that would occur later. Danny looked and saw the bottle on the windowsill.

He figured quickly that this must have been the night that the child was conceived. The dates added up for her state of pregnancy, and Danny wanted to figure a way to stop them from having sex that night.

The noise was coming still closer and Danny turned invisible. Dash could still see him, in that 'ghostly' semitransparent way that thrilled him.

Danny continued to looked around the room, exploring it, as if he had not been in it thousands of times. All he needed for his plan to succeed was a condom. Danny floated to the bedside table and opened the top drawer. He found the box that he was searching for. For the first time in his life (or death, as it were), he was thrilled that the Phantom outfit had those gloves. He took the box out and put it on top of the table and closed the drawer again. Then, he examined it. He saw that the it was a pack of six and that only two were missing. At least, he didn't have to fly to the pharmacy and shoplift. Again, he was eternally grateful not to be forced to break the law. It, the box, was now out in plain sight. He was thinking, trying to make sure that he did not change any aspect of history.

He took a place in a corner, waiting for them to enter. He did not know how he would take the sight of them going at it, so he remained invisible. He just hoped that no sound escaped him when he cringed. After a moment or two of waiting and watching the door, he noticed the door knob turning slowly. Then, the door swung open violently. He was almost afraid that the thing would have swung clean off its hinges.

She came in, ass first, and he followed swiftly behind. They were attached in several places. First and foremost the way they were making out made Danny blush. It was so gross to him that he wished he could drop dead, just for a little while. They were moaning into each other, not unlike the way Dash could make him moan. Secondly, they were attached by the groin. They were still fully dressed in their Foley and Manson 'regalia', but both sides were ready to remove those layers. He was holding her by the ass, caressing it, marveling at its perfect balance of firmness and 'bounce'. She seemed to enjoy the feeling of him manhandling her.

And what else?

Oh right… Her hands were fumbling around his front. Danny could tell that they had not been doing this for long. She was still inexpert at unfastening the belt. Danny chuckled a bit at he struggle she was having. He imagined that Tucker would have the same time difficulty removing her bra. She broke off the kiss.

Wordlessly, she smiled coquettishly at him and put her left hand down his jeans. She turned around, slightly, now looking into the room and marveling at how clean it was. She was impressed with him. It was their first time alone at his house and he had more than cleaned it, he had damn near sterilized it. His parents were out of town for the night and he was not going to miss the opportunity to get some box.

She looked back at him again and took off his glasses. Tucker's sight wasn't too terrible, so the room itself remained in perfect focus. She held them in her right hand and walked towards the far side of the room. (Closer to Danny.) She didn't walk alone. Her hands down his pants compelled him to walk behind her. He followed, in hot pursuit, and in the most earnest wish to remove aforementioned pants.

They arrived after a few tense seconds by the bedside table, where Danny had now placed the condoms.

 _"Please see them. Please see them. Please see them."_ He thought to himself.

"Mmm," Sam said, looking down at the table. "I like a man who's prepared."

"But," Tucker started to protest, "I kinda lose my edge when I'm putting it on."

Danny saw the look on her face and was not liking the hesitation on her face. He was ready to enact 'Plan B'. He only needed to make sure that her response was not contrary to her expression. If she stood her ground, he would not have to activate the contingency.

"Okay, I guess we could-"

In an instant Danny flew into her, overshadowing her mind and body. She was now in complete control. This was a peculiar position for him, because being in control of her body meant more than just commanding it. He had the power to feel, in the tactile sense, everything. So, it felt as if his left hand was grabbing Tucker by the hem of his pants. Fortunately for him, she had not been touching the trouser snake, though he could feel it's radiant heat.

In a weird way, he felt as if he was cheating. This was obviously duty, and plainly nowhere near sexual for him, but in her body he felt deeply unfaithful. He knew Dash was watching, willing him on unquestioningly, but it didn't make feeling this into mate with Tucker feel any less wrong or gross. His hands were meant to be touching Dash this way. He might have been using Sam's body as a hollow vessel, but he was the one feeling the underwear elastic brushing on his fingertips. He was still the one, who would never be able to deny that he was touching Tucker in a way that both disturbed him and made him worry, in a profound way, for his relationship. A part of his intellect told the rest of him, _"You're just on a mission. One last good deed for them in the name of nearly two decades of friendship. You do this last thing and you don't even have to see them again."_ That sounded good enough in the first utterance, but upon reflection, rang hollow and untrue. He knew he would have to see them again. Amity Park had always had a way of thwarting him, his plans, and his admittedly reasonable expectations.

All he needed to do was come up with a simple way to get Tucker to put a condom on. He needed to do it fast, too, because the longer he held Tucker by he pants, the more disgusted he became. He, through Sam's voice, could compel him, but the question was 'how?', and the answer was not readily available to him.

"Guess we could… what?" Tucker asked, in a way that both suggested his approval and his earnest wish to have sex with her.

Danny spoke through her, trying his best to maintain the husky tone she had before "I was going to say, you won't lose your edge, if I'm the one to put it on.

* * *

At Clockwork's:

"He's a fucking genius." Dash commented under his breath as he heard the words trickle from Sam's mouth. "I didn't know what he was going to do, but that was fucking awesome." That he said aloud.

"Good job, D." Dash whispered that to himself, blushing in what is rightly described as a cute mixture of pride, gratefulness, affection, and innocent, nearly childlike astonishment.

Tucker and Sam both looked at Dash and realized that Dash actually liked Danny. They had been doubtful before, thinking that Danny was just a sort of prize to Dash. They had thought that Danny would be another notch on his belt, or bedpost. But… It was simply the way he spoke… The little, breathless, but no less visceral sigh of fulfillment and attachment that could not be unheard… It jarred them.

That was the proof that Dash was really into this. Dash was into Danny way more than they were ever, or could ever get into each other. Sam and Tucker had been friends since the beginning, girlfriend and boyfriend for a bit, and attached the whole time. They didn't have anything on what Dash could claim. Sam also came to the conclusion that, no matter how hard she tried, the obvious gulfs in personality that had existed between she and Danny would never have made for a relationship as deep as this. What she had felt before was infatuation. When that would have faded, the bonds of friendship would not have been a proper place for either of them to build something romantic. It would have been like trying to build a house on sand. For whatever reason, fate had provided Dash and Danny with bedrock. It was going to be hard, but she was going to resign herself to that.

The look that Dash continued to wear on his face spoke to them more than words, or deeds. His face was emotion, itself. The look of jolly, innocent, unbridled, and unencumbered adoration that he had for Danny was proof enough that they had gotten this whole thing wrong. Tucker had to look away for shame. He stared at the floor, boring holes into it, and looked to his left at Sam. Her face was blank and stoic, save that single tear of regret that destroyed her makeup. Dash needed not hit them to teach them, but to show the compassion that Danny deserved.

* * *

Danny was still screaming inside as he looked into Tucker's green eyes. He had to stare into them to keep up the pretense. Tucker's eyes looked into Sam's (and therefore Danny's) with pure lust and wanton desire. Danny watched as Tucker licked his lips instinctively at the offer.

Danny waited on pins and needles for Tucker to answer. It felt like three eternities had passed, but it was had only been about three seconds.

"Yeah," Tucker said, "I think I could go for that."

Instantly, Danny flew out of her, maintaining his imperceptibility to them. He flew back to the corner whence he came and looked back at the couple. He looked with special attention at Sam. She resumed control of herself, and assessed the situation. She was still ready for it. She only stared at him smiling, as if she was waiting for the next thing to happen.

"You said that you were going to put it on." Tucker whispered to her.

She realized that the box was still in her hand and put it together for herself. "Well, wasn't that a good idea."

Tucker furrows his brow, thinking the comment a bit strange. He didn't have much time to think on it, before she removed her hand from his trousers, lifted it to his chest and pushed him onto the bed. He fell squarely on the bed and she got on top of him. She knelt above him, one leg on either side of his middle. She was astride the place that interest her most.

From this angle she tried again to remove Tucker's belt, and this time she met with overwhelming success. He watched as the belt came off and went flying as she threw it. Of course, it came flying (like a missile) in Danny's direction. He did not flinch, knowing it wouldn't hit him. He needed to stay for a bit longer to make absolutely certain that they were protected.

Tucker was still underneath her, his pants now riding down a bit. He watched with amazement, as she took a condom out of the box and held it it in her hand. She lifted the wrapping to her mouth. She the edge of wrapper between her teeth, careful not to perforate the rubber and opened it. Tucker had never seen something so hot in his life. The white glint of her teeth smirking as she was about to basically give him the beginnings of a handjob made his cock twitch in a way that he would call 'dramatic blood flow'.

Meanwhile, Danny looked on, still feeling the need to bathe. That display was enough proof for him that his plan had worked. Without even a momentary sigh of relief, he flew back towards where he knew the portal to the present was. It was obvious to him where it was in the room so he flew to it at Speed to it.

There arose a problem. Danny hit the wall. It was silent. It was unheeded by the couple in the throes of passion, but he felt it like nothing he felt before. The wall was invisible. It was like one of those two way mirrors in interrogation rooms. It was, in fact, the strangest force field he had ever encountered. It let him in, but would not let him out. Danny started to panic but did not make a peep. He imagined that this feeling was what an animal in a trap experienced. The only difference here was that his ears were being assaulted with the groaning, moaning, grunting, and panting of something he found absolutely terrifying. Something about the whole thing was wrong. Well, a lot is wrong in this whole story.

 _"Don't fucking tell me that I'm stuck in the past."_ Danny thought to himself, _"And for fuck's sake don't let me be stuck here of all places on the goddamned earth."_

* * *

From Clockwork's side, Dash saw the look on Danny's face. He rushed over to the 'screen' where this scene was playing out before him. Sam and Tucker's looks of wonderment towards Dash turned into consternation as Dash went, well, dashing to the screen. It was a blank screen to them, bearing in mind that Danny was still invisible and intangible to all except himself and his boyfriend. Danny looked liked he was in silent agony. The barrier between them was like clear glass, so they looked each other in the eye. On Danny's side of things, he was able to calm down. Dash hated this, because it looked and felt exactly like his boyfriend was in jail.

Dash's mind went into overdrive as he tried to think of a way to get Danny from that hell he was in. His thoughts were failing him, so he went back to his usual course of action. Namely, thinking of something simple and doing it. Dash recalled what Clockwork had said about them both being able to use this power. He also remembered the fact he had known since the beginning. He needed Danny, and Danny needed him. Again, bearing these things in mind, something popped into his head. He quickly and quietly contemplated the idea and opted to put it into motion immediately. It could work, of that he was sure. Whether or not it would work was a different question entirely.

 _"Fuck it,"_ He thought and muttered simultaneously.

Dash reached out, with his right hand, to the surface hoping that his plan would work. His fingertips made contact with the surface.

Then, his hands transcended the image before him. It was not as if Dash shattered a television. It was gentle as if put put his hand outside through an open window. He was reaching into the past as if he had done it a million times before. Danny grabbed the hand for dear life and clung onto it as if it were his last resort before falling off a cliff.

Dash felt the grip on his hand and pulled his hand back. He hoped that he could pull his boyfriend back to the present and have him close by again.

Dash pulled with all his might and took a few steps back to get Danny back into Clockwork's Lair. It was not dissimilar from a tug of war, except that Dash was battling time. Dash was not only resisting time, but time's natural tendency to be linear. Danny Phantom could walk through walls, disappear, and fly. Certainly, with the help of his dearest, he could defy time too.

Danny, on his end, was trying his best to get back into the present, flying with all his might into the present. Though Dash could reach into the past with relative ease, Danny's journey from August eleventh to September sixteenth was harder. He was flying into the future. Dash's part was relatively easy. Remembering takes a second, contemplating the future was something that no mortal could do by himself. Luckily for Danny, he had traded in mortality for eternity a few years prior. So, Danny kept pushing, basically flying through time.

Dash kept pulling, silently willing his boyfriend to come back to him. HE turned his head and looked over at Tucker and Sam. They stood still, only blankly staring at Dash. Again, it was abundantly clear as to why Danny picked Dash's company when pressed. Sam had miscalculated. Dash got the idea to ask them for help.

 _"Why don't you two come and pull with me, instead of just staring like a couple of fucking retards?"_ Dash thought. The words did not pass his lips. He looked back at the task in front of him, and decided to keep his mouth shut. He didn't have the energy to waste on them.

After what felt like an eternity to both of them, Dash had managed to pull Danny through the wormhole. Dash fell on the lair's floor with a thud, and his boyfriend landed squarely on top of him. Danny became visible and tangible to all, giving the quick explanation that the other couple needed. Their eyes met and held the contact for a moment. The simple contact between them sufficed for a an embrace. They watched the wormhole, and the image of the past fade away. It gave them all, the entire group of four, closure.

"Welcome back," Dash said. He looked into his boyfriend's eyes and saw the fatigue. It made sense to him, Danny did just fly through time, He did just fly one month into the future. It was probably Danny's supernatural power that got him through that journey. If Dash remembered physics correctly, Danny had to just fly at the speed of light to get from the past to the present like that. He did not feel like reviewing those facts just then. He was happy to have his boyfriend back.

"Thanks," Danny replied, the tiredness evident in his voice. He sounded like he hadn't slept in days, "Good to be ba-"

"OH GOD!" Sam yelled interrupting the moment the male lovebirds were having. Danny levitated up, and grabbed Dash's hand to lift him to his feet. Danny resumed his usual position, tucked neatly under his boyfriend's frame. This time it was different though, Danny leaned into Dash, using him for support. Dash was more than able to take the strain, and did not see it as such. He delighted in Danny's trust, and took note of the great responsibility to protect him. He accepted that duty without hesitation, and with great pride. The two looked over and saw Sam, who had her shirt lifted you to just under her breasts. She continued to speak, she had quieted down, but was still expressing deep astonishment, pleasure, and possibly relief. "My stomach is flat again. My abs are back."

Danny and Dash walked over closer to inspect. Indeed her belly was toned. Dash had no point of reference. So, her belly was not something of great importance to him, notwithstanding that her belly is what got her into this in the first place. Danny's point of reference was narrow. He had only known the athletic Sam, so what he saw was what he had known. Tucker and Sam knew it. He even saw that the light, and not at all unflattering puffiness that had graced her face recently had also gone. Her body was what he had been having sex with in the past, so he was confident of… whatever he just meant.

"Hallelujah." Tucker whispered under his breath to no one in particular, again, suspending his disbelief.

That hit Danny in a way that made him feel really hollow. He shook his head to rid himself of the feeling for that moment. Somehow, he was sure in himself that the emotion he had would rear its ugly head again.

Her face turned from joy to one of discomfort.

"Cramps." She said, and all three of the boys understood her. That was proof positive that Danny's scheme worked.

* * *

The ride back to the Fenton Works Laboratory was cramped and quiet. The Specter Speeder could comfortably handle three, but four was a stretch. Dash, who ended up sitting next to Tucker and was becoming intimately acquainted with his body in a way that made left him with a great deal of uneasiness. Dash simultaneously wanted to kill him and shake him awake. Danny gunned it to put a hasty end to their discomfort. The physical discomfort at least.

When they got back, the disembarked speedily. Danny and Dash put the tarp back onto the vehicle. Then, Danny closed the portal doors again. Now the four of them stood in silence. The deed had been done.

Sam looked at Danny, whose mental and emotional exhaustion was evident by the tired look that he wore on his face. She had seen it a million times before. She had never known the correct response. Dash seemed to have it down pat. Something seemed natural about the way Danny fit under Dash's arm. Something seemed so right to her about how Danny's head could find a perfect place upon his chest.

"Thank you," Sam said, looking around them, but unable to speak to him. "I uh…" She found herself at a loss for words for the first time in her life. "I'm sorry about the stuff earlier. I was stupid and wrong." She said.

"Me too," Tucker said earnestly, "I'm sorry, too."

"We'll make it up to you…" Sam promised. "I don't know if we'll ever be friends again, but I'm sorry." She apologized again. Just an hour before, she had told him to choose between Dash and her. Now she was apologizing. It hit her hard that it would take some time for him to even like her again. She had castigated him, for no good reason, a couple of weeks ago for not being trustworthy.

 _"Fuck."_ She said in her head.

"Is there anything you want us to do?" Tucker said, trying to demonstrate his regret. He had been the first one to come back to his senses.

"For now, guys." Danny said, "You should just head home. I'm tired. We can talk about it later, tomorrow."

"But, Da-," Sam interjected.

"He's tired," Dash said, assertively, stopping the argument before it started.

"Okay, you're right." Sam said sheepishly, starting to turn her body to go up to go up the stairs. She did not want to leave, but she knew that her presence would be of no help whatsoever. "I, uh… we will see you later. Call us later, Danny."

"Yeah man," Tucker added, " _We'll call you_ later." He made sure that he emphasized that imperative distinction because Danny was not the one who needed to make the effort. They were, and he realized that it was going to be one hell of a campaign. He realized that he not only needed to earn Danny's trust back, but earn Dash's too. That was going to take some doing. For now, he realized that the first and best step to getting back into Danny's good graces was to listen to him. He spoke again, "Let's go, Sam. I'll drop you home."

Instinctively, he grabbed her hand. Strangely enough, she did not reject it. They were both in the same boat. They knew that. They both wanted to make amends, so the shit between them fled from their minds. They both literally forgot the tension that had just been exploded between them an hour before. They were both focused on making things right with their friend and navigating the reality that he had a boyfriend. They were the ones who needed to reform.

Danny was right. He did not need to come out to them. His preference was so infinitesimal. What's worse is that they would have known if they bothered to pay attention. If they had listened to the false, trifling 'anger' he had towards Dash's 'advances', they would have known. Had they thought, for even a moment about the blushes they saw when he talked about Dash... Had they fucking realized how _much_ he talked about Dash… day after day… hour after hour. They thought back to the same conversation in Danny's room He had said, "I mean I just don't know. It's just the way he always presses his body against me and won't let me go. FUCK!" They remember how he yelled, almost moaned the word in frustration, but they misidentified the cause. It was not that Dash was touching him, it was that Dash did not touch him enough.

Danny had been telling them he was gay in small ways since he was eleven or twelve. They had been ignoring it for nearly as long… Now, they dealt with the truth. Nothing was different now, except that their friend had found happiness living his truth. It was different than what they had known, and making peace with that was not exactly easy.

They looked down back into the basement and took a last look at Danny. Danny offered up the best he could muster, a weak wave, an affirmative nod, and a hint of a smile. That gave them hope that the total restoration of harmony between the ghost and the original helpers was possible.

They left the boyfriends alone. For that, Dash was grateful.

"We need to get you upstairs and get you to bed." Dash spoke, his voice dripping with concern.

"But, Dash, we had a date. I wanted to go out with you." He yawned through the last few words. "I promised you."

"Danny, we can do it later."

"I'm sorry." Danny said, still in the form of Phantom.

"You don't have to apologize." Dash answered, "Now I need you to transform back to Fenton for me. Okay."

"Okay." Dash relinquished him and took a couple of steps back.

Danny transformed back, though the usual rings were not as bright and they hugged closer to his body. The transformation also took longer to complete, but complete it did.

Danny was standing on his own. He looked at Dash and remembered smiling at him, feeling a strange joy at seeing him alone. Then his vision went black.

Dash had seen the look on Danny's face and rushed into position. It was not that Danny fainted. He had fallen asleep. Dash was there to catch him in his arms. He lifted Danny up and cradled Danny on his arms. Dash carried the weight easily, because Danny was no where near a challenge for him. He carried him the classic way with one arm under the back of Danny's knees and the other supporting his back.

He was carrying Danny the same way a groom carries a bride. Dash listen for a moment and heard Danny's gentle breathing. Danny looked so at peace, and again, Dash knew that his life, his very existence would be in the constant defense of this beautiful thing be held in his arms. The very idea of Danny thrilled him, so he had to protect it at all costs. People who felt the same way about their country were called patriots. Dash had a similar sort of pride in Danny. He knew that there were billions of people on earth, but he was the only one who could claim Danny as his. He started to ascend the stairs, holding Danny with steadfast care.

He made it to the top of the stairs, and, without jostling Danny managed to turn the knob. Now, on the the first floor, Dash made his way to the next set of stairs. He had to walk across the living room. It was empty, so he had no trouble. Soon, he got to the second set of stairs that led to the second level. This was slightly trickier given that the banister was there making the steps narrower. The steps were also steeper, but Dash managed to get up the stairs. He made the familiar left turn, and thanked God aloud that there was no one there to see him.

He walked to the second door down, and opened it into the room he had been in many times now. He quickly shut the door behind him. He noticed how dark the room was and looked towards the window to see if the curtains were drawn. They weren't, so he looked at the digital clock on Danny's night table and saw that it was 9:30 in the evening. He knew that Clockwork advanced time and would have to thank him later. He walked Danny over to the bed rested him on the mattress. He knew that he couldn't put Danny in bed in street clothes, so he endeavored to get him into a more comfortable state. He turned on the lamp so he could see, Danny didn't even flinch.

Dash started by kneeling by Danny's feet and removing his shoes and socks. Danny slept through all of this, and Dash figured that he would sleep very well that night. He put the shoes by the closet door and put the socks in the hamper by the door. Nest, he moved up and started to remove Danny's belt first. He was quite the expert in this. He removed it, and unbuttoned, and unzipped the blue jeans that made Fenton an icon for him. He slid them off of Danny's smooth legs with relative ease.

Dash was very glad it was him doing this for Danny. As powerful as this person before him was, he was was completely vulnerable at this moment. Nothing about a sleeping Danny turned him on, in fact, all he wanted to do was the join his boyfriend in sleep. However, he knew that there were those out there who were into that sleep stuff, and Danny would be a prime target.

Dash got rid of that scary thought, while he looked for something for Danny to wear for his bottom half. The white boxers that he had on were scarcely enough. He walked over to a dresser and opened it. Sitting right at the top was a pair of sweatpants.

"Perfect," Dash mumbled to himself, taking the pants and closing the drawer again. He unfolded the thing. It smelled like fabric softener, and was indeed fluffy and free of static cling.

He walked back over and put Danny's feet through the top and lifted them onto his twinkish frame. Lastly, Dash pulled off the famous Fenton t-shirt. Danny wore a soft white undershirt that Dash left in its place. Luckily, Danny had not had the chance to make the bed before he left for their date eight and a half hours ago. Dash put Danny into his usual sleeping position, sure that Danny would find a way to sleep more comfortably and change positions. Dash tucked him in, and laid the covers over him. He watched as Danny snuggled into the pillow, wiggling his butt a little, like a bunny would.

Dash wanted to remain their until the morning. He wanted to just hop into the bed and spoon him, just to be intimate with him again. He knew that he couldn't. He had to go home because he had a curfew. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone. It was 9:37. He had plenty of time, his curfew wasn't until 10:30 but Danny needed to rest. He saw that Danny had a notebook and pen out on the nightstand.

He scribbled a quick note, and put it next to the clock that would wake him up in the morning.

"I'll let you rest, Danny." He whispered. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He bent down, and gave Danny a kiss on the cheek. He watched at Danny's mouth turn into a gentle dreamy smile.

"Sweet dreams." Dash said, turning off the lights again.

He exited the room and shut the door behind him silently. He continued to down the hallway to the of Fenton Works. His departure was uneventful. He found Mister Fenton in the kitchen (of course). Jack let him out and wished him good night.

"Goodnight, Mister Fenton." Dash replied.

"Goodnight to you, young man."

Dash walked back to where his car was parked.

He got in and started to make the brave drive home.

* * *

END OF PART ONE


	21. Twenty-one

Sunday, the seventeenth of September dawned, cloudless, windless and chilly. It was very autumnal indeed. The first frost had not come yet, but was due soon. The days were getting noticeably shorter, and Danny did not mind. The Upper Midwest was his home, so the cold and dark in the waning year was normal to him. He was in no position to have such strong feelings on something so trivial. Normally, he would not have cared about something as simple as the amount of daylight, but this was different. It was not just a new day dawning, it was a new chapter, a new part in the story of his life. He had been enlightened to his (and Dash's) full potential.

Some thoughts passed him by in wakefulness, but all were disregarded in that beautiful realm of sleep. He was in that second way, asleep, and resting like he had never rested before. His mind was not yet awake, so his body took control of restoring itself. His flesh found his present condition quite favorable. His mind did too.

The temperature of the room was just right, so were the bedclothes, and his pajamas. Danny had that exquisite feeling of taking a long hot bath between heading to sleep on freshly laundered sheets. His body relaxed in a way that it had not known since before the accident. He actually seemed to be resting. His ghost half was not changed in its constant energy, but his body was demanding, and rightly taking some rest. He did not want to admit it, but when he and Dash shared the bed, he was a bit restless. Sure, he fell asleep, but even his sleep was in a state of excitement. Dash's presence excited him in many ways, platonic, romantic, and even in a way of admiration. Every time, he had gone to sleep with Dash, there was some energy there that was never used up the way it should have been. He knew that something in him needed release, release and satisfaction.

Even in the moments that preceded true wakefulness, he felt a sort of unconscious excitement. This made sleep seem so trivial to him that he did it just to seem normal, just to conform. Don't get me wrong, his body still craved sleep as everyone's did, more so in death. He clung onto his sheets and wanted to see how long he could remain there in the comfort of his bed. Besides, if he did not sleep and his family sensed activity at all hours, he would draw even more suspicion. So, he slept. This time he knew it was different, he felt like he someone had put him there. He felt like he had been tucked into bed.

" _Wait a second..."_ Danny thought sitting up slightly, it occurring to him that this felt too good, " _How did I get to bed last night?"_

"No, seriously." Danny asked aloud. "Last thing I remember was being down in the basement, in the lab. How did I get up here?"

He looked to his left and right, something telling him that the answer would be around. The nightstand caught his attention. It was not the nightstand actually, but what was on top of it. His alarm was in its correct place. It was the piece of paper, folded in half, and made to stand like a tent. Whoever put it there wanted it to be noticed. He saw his name on it, written in neat, but no doubt, bold and masculine penmanship. It was an impressive cursive that he did not recognize, but felt he would not mind getting to know. It did not match the near calligraphic standards of Sam's hand. It was entirely too neat to be Tucker's doing. His writing resembled Arabic script in Danny's opinion, quite calligraphic and decorative, but not in any way in English iconography.

Danny sure as hell knew his writing, and that of his mother, father and sister. Besides he would not write a note to himself as he had a photographic memory. His parents would just barge into the room, much to his ire, if they needed to convey something of import. At times, he knew he got really lucky, as he was mere moments, maybe only seconds from going online and viewing some 'visual viagra'. Sometimes the browser was already open. The other usual option was that they would want to talk after he had only finished up twenty or thirty seconds before. The immediate ripples of carnal pleasure may have usually subsided within in his flesh, but he would find himself feeling grossed out, as if he was actually caught. The only person he could bare catching him in that position would be Dash (in fact, that was a fantasy of his). Jazz, if she wanted to talk, would knock and only when vocal permission was granted, or simply send a text.

Half, well, maybe a solid third of him wanted to leave the paper there because it was so stately. He wanted to leave it, almost as a mystery, a bit of innocent excitement in his life. That larger part of him wanted, no, needed to see what the mystery note was. He grabbed it gingerly, reaching to the slate gray nightstand on his left. He sat completely up, his back resting on the headboard. He leaned on the pillow as a cushion for his back. He read it quietly to himself, not knowing who it was from or what the hell it would say. It read:

 _Hey,_

 _You fell asleep in my arms when you transformed back to you normal (cute) self. I carried you into your bedroom, and got you into some comfortable clothes to sleep in. Hope you don't mind. :) I swear I didn't do anything weird. I only gave you a kiss on the cheek._

 _Don't worry about our date. It'll happen when it happens. Call me when you wake up._

 _-Your boyfriend Dash_

 _P.S. You get cuter every time I see you._

Danny hugged the letter to his chest, knowing it was his first verifiable proof of this relationship. He knew it was real, but now it written down onto paper. It was on something physical that he could cherish forever, and for that he was grateful. He folded it, just as it was and reached over to the nightstand again. He opened the little drawer underneath the table surface, and put the letter right on top a moderately sized black box, which fit inside the compartment perfectly, and left a couple of inches on top for easy closure. The drawer seemed small from the outside, but was much deeper than perceptible to most. The content of the black, metal box, which amounted to a small safe, was top secret. It was locked then, and even the location of the key was 'classified'. Even Sam and Tucker had no clue of what was stored in the safe, or that it even existed. He was the only person who knew its contents, as he had been the one to acquire and store them, but he knew that it would not remain that way forever. The note remained on top temporarily.

He was going to probably by a binder, a notebook, or some sort of album to put it in. He would have framed it, if it would not have aroused attention. So, he put it there in a special place, nearby, but not readily visible, known but not seen. Danny would have never thought that he would be so schmaltzy, so saccharine, but Dash made him this way. Danny craved Dash's company like nothing else. He once thought that he could survive on the friendly relationships he had with Sam and Tucker. And, to be fair, he did. Dash ruined that for him. First, by parading around with his undeniably handsome face. Then, by presenting his physique to Danny through the clothes. Then, by showing Danny his body, excepting the sexual parts. Danny wanted this bad. He wanted this to work, and that little letter gave him hope that it would. He did not know what would be on the horizon. All he knew was that Dash would be alongside. That gave him great comfort.

He felt another overwhelming sense of freedom from cutting the relationship completely with Sam and Tucker. He knew that he did not have to, meaning he was in no way obligated to help them. He knew, however, that this way the only way to make a clean break with them. He owed them nothing and they had no debts to him. He had been slightly traumatized, being made to grab Tucker that way, but sleep had removed the ill feelings. He simply viewed this as his way to be made free of the burden of their company. The door of their friendship had been shut, but none of the three could say definitively if it was locked.

Danny got up and out of bed, to piss and freshen himself up. He went right back into his room and rummaged through his pockets to find his phone. He wanted to talk to him, but something told him not to call. So, he texted.

Danny: hey

Dash: hey can't talk rn. in church

Danny: K

Dash: i'll b out in 15 mins

So, Danny waited for fifteen minutes, then twenty, and then twenty-five before his phone started ringing. Danny looked down and saw the familiar name and answered on the third ring. No need to seem desperate.

"Hello." Danny answered, his voice still gruff from lack of use that day. "You home yet?"

"Yeah I'm in my room, still in this suit though. I hope you got my note."

"I did." Danny answered, imagining that Dash was very handsome in a suit (or a tux). He continued to speak, "And thanks for helping my out. I was tired, like supernaturally tired after that yesterday. I just remember you telling me to transform back to human form and then I woke up this morning."

"Well that's basically what happened. You're pretty light though, so lifting and carrying you was easy." Dash answered.

"Well, you have those big strong arms." Danny commented. "And thanks for changing me into some comfortable clothes."

"I couldn't put you in bed with jeans and sneakers on." Dash answered.

"Well, thanks. Sam and Tucker definitely dumped me here in my street clothes before."

"Well, I'm never gonna dump you. in any way at any time." Dash answered.

"Dashie?" They both knew that Danny was the only person on Earth who could get away with calling him that. Dash hated when any other person said it, but something about the timbre and tone of Danny's voice made it okay.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay with all of this?" Danny asked just about the vaguest question possible.

"Wh-"

"I mean," Danny sat up in his bed. "All that stuff that Clockwork was saying yesterday. I mean, I can barely wrap my mind around it. I mean he was talking about end times and great battles between good and evil. He was talking about the gap between the physical and Ghost Zones closing. I mean he was talking about the walls between humanity and spirituality coming down. You know, us being so-called kings of entire planes of existence."

"I mean. I don't have a choice but to be at peace with it. If I can't change it, I don't see any need in fighting it." Dash answered coolly. "And I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, or a week ago. I'm fine/

"I mean… It's not fair, to you. You only entered this whole thing to be my boyfriend and now you have the weight of not just the world, but two worlds on your shoulders. I don't know how you can be so calm."

Dash spoke in an eloquence that made Danny's heart melt and made his mind burn with hope, admiration, and a reasonable portion of desire. "I have borne a lot of weight in my life. I have had baggage with me from the start, but I dropped it when you came around, when you really came into my life as someone that'll stay. I dropped hiding in the closet and yearning for you. I can carry the world on my shoulders if it means I can be with you. It doesn't feel so heavy anymore. It doesn't feel so heavy anymore. Besides, I know that you are doing this with me, that you're always beside me, and that's enough for me."

"Wow…" Danny remarked, astonished that anyone would take the time to think that way about him. "I don't know what to say…"

"I'm sorry…" Dash's voice dripping in sincerity, "I didn't mean to get so mushy… It's just when I talk to you and think about you, all my messiness and mushiness comes out."

"It's okay. I get butterflies when I talk to you too. I just didn't know that you had a poet in you."

"I didn't either." Dash remarked, "I just get all mushy inside when I think about you. I was never taught to express that right."

"No one ever was." Danny answered him sympathetically.

"So, you know what…" Dash answered. "I gonna try. I don't think I'm going to be any good at it, but I'm gonna give it a shot."

"Me too." Danny answered, at a loss for words. "I want to be better at making how I felt known. I have hidden my feelings for long enough Dash… I already have to hide my other nature, but I'm tired of hiding and lying about the things people ought to know."

"Good."

Danny continued, first, with the phrase that always displayed his anxiety or excitement, "I mean, it's the twenty-first century. I'm committed to you like nothing I have ever committed to before. When I died and went through that hell and agony, I thought of it as duty to go to work and do the best for my town. But this is not like this. I want this so bad. I have wanted this for so long. I'm enthusiastic about you. I want to be with you, more than I want anything else."

"Oh?" Dash answered finding himself blushing and swelling a bit.

"I want to be with you and I want people to know it." Danny said.

"Oh?"

Danny's voice grew smaller, but remained even with a quiet certitude and resolve that made Dash's spine straighten, his skin tingle, and his hair stand up, "I think I'm gonna come out to my parents."

"Whoa… really?"

"Yes," Danny said. "And I'm not saying that I need you to come out to your folks till your ready."

"But… really... for me? We've only been at this thing for a couple of weeks and I still haven't taken you on a proper date. We still haven't gone to see that movie, or you know, gone out to an Italian place and ended up sharing a spaghetti noodle…"

"With or without you…" Danny said, "I'm still gay as hell. I just want to do my gayness with you."

"You might not even like gay sex. You might like the idea, but might, you know, not be really into the flesh on flesh physical stuff."

"Well," Danny started, "From the experience I have given myself, I have a pretty good idea of what my body likes. A girl doesn't have the required parts to fulfill that. They're too… uh squishy… Besides I think sooner or later you will prove it to me beyond a reasonable doubt, by showing me your ample gayness. I just want to do it with you."

"Yes. Me too. I want to do my gayness with you." Dash said, "Though, if we're honest that sounds like a euphemism."

"Do our gayness to and with each other?" Danny whispered, "Yeah, that sounds like code."

"Not a very good one." Dash answered before they settled into a silence that was called comfort.

"Where are you?" Danny interjected, "I know it's random, but-"

"I'm in my room, chilling on my bed, thinking about being with you."

"And what are you wearing?"

"Still wearing my suit from church."

"And what does it look like?"

"It's a black suit, kinda like onyx I think they call it. I'm wearing an white shirt, my parents got it while they were away. Wearing a solid red tie, too."

Danny asked, "Is the suit cut, you know, modern?"

"Modern?"

"You know, _tight?_ "

"Well, yeah…" Dash answered.

"The slacks too?" Danny's voice sounded, hushed, almost breathless.

"Yes." Dash did not know quite what was going on, but he liked it. He wondered to himself if that was what Danny sounded like in the heat of passion. He knew that he would find out before years end, maybe as a birthday or Christmas present.

"So you mean if I saw you right now, I could see your muscles through the suit?"

"Danny, are you… hot and bothered over there?" Dash asked, reveling in how this conversation turned. Danny was coming out of his shell, more confident and freer, more sexual too. And Horny Danny is good Danny

"Maybe," Danny answered. He was lying. It looked like Danny had a model of a space shuttle under his sheets. He kept his hands from under there, knowing that if they ventured lower, he would not be able to stop himself. Danny was also blushing furiously. His head tilted back in desire, knowing that, for at least the present, it would remain unsated.

"Just don't go creaming those clean pajamas."

"And, why not?" Danny asked, "They're mine, and I do my own laundry. So what's wrong with that? My life, my decision, and besides I haven't had time to... lately."

"So, you should save it. Don't waste it in some sweatpants where it'll go unappreciated."

"Oh, and when was the last time you came?"

"That's irrelevant," Dash answered, quickly, but with a good humor that was registered by the other. Danny chuckled a bit as Dash continued, "What I care about is that you leave it alone. You're too eager to drop a load, let it build up first. And no cheating in the shower Fenton, I'll be able to tell."

"Tell?" Danny asked, "I doubt it. It's going to be a while before you'll know what this is all about."

"Fine, I can wait." Dash said.

"But not for as long as it takes us to get physical." Danny replied.

"Why not?" Dash answered.

"Don't do that to yourself. It would only do you damage." Danny stopped his boyfriend before he got himself into a world of yearning, and burning for release. That sounded romantic to him, but that was not how riend from embarking on that dangerous path called blue balls.

"I wasn't going to, but you gotta keep calm. We can't afford you getting all excited everytime we speak on the phone. I mean, we still have a school year to get through. It's only still September. Cool your tits, Fenton."

"You're right. But Dash, how're we going to do this?"

"Do what?"

"I mean, keep this thing together. I want this, us, to work. I kinda been wanting this for too long for this not to work out. I mean, we have classes together, so we can't talk then. And I know that we uh… no… I know we can't. Neither of us can afford for the school to know this."

"I guess before and after school are our only options." Dash remarked.

"I guess."

"But, look at it this way, dude," Dash had not actually realized the new moniker he gave Danny, "there are more hours in the day that we could have together than be in school."

"Most of that time will be spent sleeping."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Dash fired that out as if he had been waiting to say it.

"You talk a big game." Danny answered bag, licking his lips, before deciding to bite the bottom one.

"I have the parts to match." Dash was full of innuendo. Any sort of absolution he may have received at church was gone, for he was having dirty, dirty thoughts.

"You do have the parts to match your ego, I agree. I don't know how I'm going to handle that fucking monster when the time comes. You have the heart to match too."

"Well, thank you…" Dash answered, disgruntled that the first part of Danny's prior comments were only words at this point.

"I'm serious. That ripped physique and gruff personality are just protecting that big mush-mush of a heart you have. You're a big softy, and probably a romantic."

"No pressure. I guess." Dash exhaled ironically.

Danny chuckled.

"I'm serious, though," Dash started again, "Please dont expect too much of me. I'm just a human being. I can't be perfect all the time. I'm gonna be stupid and make mistakes, and hurt your feelings. And you'll do the same."

"I'm not asking you to be perfect. Just be you."

"That's what I want to do. I uh… was thinking about trying to live my life on my terms too. I... uh... was going to talk to Kwan this afternoon… I want my friend back." Dash said. "And I kinda want him back knowing everything about me. And I want for he and your sister to get together. It would remove the people who would interrupt, distract them."

"You're gonna come out?"

"I never really liked that term, but yeah… I've been thinking about it for dour days now and I finally worked up the nerve."

"Good luck, Dash."

* * *

Kwan looked down at his phone. 'D-Unit' is what it said. Kwan chuckled a little bit, remembering when he first programmed that into his phone. He remembered when he thought, when they both thought that would be a cool nickname for Dash, but it was silly now. Rapidly approaching adulthood made the name seem so trivial, too Midwestern (trying to be 'cool'). If Kwan remembered correctly, Dash had him as 'K-Faction' in his contacts. Whatever the case, Kwan was relieved and delighted to see that Dash was calling. He had felt like they were drifting apart. Dash was always spaced out, it seemed, and he wanted his friend back. Kwan knew him too well, Dash only got all spacey when he was interested in someone romantically, which was rare for him.

Kwan wanted to talk to him, and there were multiple reasons. Firstly, and most selfishly, Kwan had seen her again. Jazz that is. She had been gone for the first week, but now she was back, and he was tongue-tied. He had wanted to say to Dash that he was working up the nerve to speak to her. Well, he was working up the balls to be in the same space with her without freaking out and (literally) running away. Secondly, he wanted to call to make sure that Dash was okay. As previously stated, Kwan noticed a markedly different Dash at the lunch table. Dash did not seem interested in talking, and Kwan, for his part, humored his silence. Kwan did this for multiple reasons as well. He was one of the 'cool' kid who seemed to just fit in. As such, it would not have been socially correct for him to show an interest in someone who was obviously uninterested in speaking. Kwan's other reason, was actually more important. He had still been a little pissed at Dash for repeatedly blowing him off in the summer. Kwan had realized how childish that was and had put that aside.

Kwan's concern for his friend's wellbeing made him forget his anger and made it all seem trivial. He was over it now, and his attention turned back to his friend, his best friend. He was worried that Dash was going to 'kill himself'. He was not worried that the quarterback was going to shoot himself, or do anything that drastic. He was simply concerned that Dash was going to run himself ragged, by being so wrapped up in his thoughts. He had also seen that Dash had been over-exercising in gym. Kwan knowing Dash, that could only mean two things: trouble or love. Whichever, Kwan wanted to know, so he could be there.

Kwan had been sitting in bed, doing nothing but skiving away his Sunday, waiting for the prison of school the next day. He had played some video games, took a break to play himself (just being honest), and was now back to playing some game about stealing cars or something like that. He was clothed only in a t-shirt, a pair of Casper High gym shorts, and some clean white socks. He had grown his hair out a bit, and it suited his strong features. He sat on the side edge of his bed and looked to the television mounted on the opposite wall. His room was spacious, just like Dash's because he lived in the same neighborhood of large houses. His walls, save for the tv, were painted white and clear of posters or any other youthful paraphernalia. He has wooden floors in his room, which he took pains to keep clean and waxed.

The room was almost laboratory clean, but still, somehow, felt lived in. It was in this room that Kwan would take the phone call to change what he knew.

"Hello," Kwan answered, putting the phone on his shoulder and leaning his head in to talk. He kept his controller in hand as he continued his virtual mayhem.

"Yeah, Kwan," Dash answered, "We, uh, need to talk."

"Yeah," Kwan heard a seriousness in Dash's voice that he had never heard,

"Not on the phone. It's serious. We need to talk face to face, someplace private."

"Sure," Kwan had paused the game to hold the phone more easily. "Um, my parents are out until late tonight. You should come over."

"I'll be there in ten."

"Sure."

* * *

It took Dash eleven minutes to arrive at K's place. He parked on the street in front, not wanting to block the driveway. You know, just in case Kwan's parents came home early. He walked up the garden path, to the cream-colored Federal Colonial house with the stone blue shutters. It was three stories, and Dash had always thought that it was prettier than his house. He also wondered what they did with the rest of the space. Only three people lived there, but they had plenty of room.

" _First-world problems,"_ Dash thought to himself as he got to the door. He rang the bell, which sounded the Westminster chimes. Kwan appeared and let Dash in. Kwan inspected his friend, and he looked... stronger. It looked to him as if Dash's muscles were bigger and showed more through his letterman jacket and jeans. Dash still looked, normal and healthy, but he looked even more the perfect physical specimen than before. Maybe he was imagining things...

"Hey Dash," Kwan kept his distance, not knowing quite how to greet him, "You sounded serious over the phone." Kwan shut the door behind him, bristling at the relative coldness that drafted in.

"We should sit down," Dash said, almost seeming to command the events. Dash had gotten himself into team captain mode.

Kwan recognized this demeanor and listened. He guided Dash to the dining room, as it fit the mood. The living room seemed to alive for the seriousness that was dripping off of Dash at that moment.

Dash sat down at the side of the grand wooden table, leaving the head of the table because he was not invited to sit there.

"Do you want something to drink?" Kwan asked, "Water? Soda? Cough Syrup?"

"What?" Dash asked.

"Sorry, just trying to make a joke. You're acting more serious than Lancer right now. It's fucking tense bro." Kwan answered defensively.

"No, I'm sorry, and that water sounds like a good idea." Dash answered.

" _And maybe a spliff."_ Kwan thought.

"Some weed isn't a bad idea, man." Dash answered.

"Wait what?" Kwan answered.

"I said that spliff you offered ain't a bad idea. I'm on edge man."

"I mean…" Kwan started, "I didn't think I said that out loud. Like it was like I joke… I didn't know I said it.."

"What?!" Dash asked, completely perplexed by his friend.

"Nothing,"Kwan said, "It's nothing."

Dash watched as Kwan disappeared into the kitchen. He sat and twiddled his thumbs, forgetting that awkward exchange. Soon, Kwan came back with a tray in hand. On said tray, a glass pitcher of ice water, two empty glasses, and two coasters. Kwan sat across from him and poured them some water. He handed Dash a glass and a coaster. Kwan took a casual sip. Dash chugged the whole glass and nearly choked on the ice. Kwan raised an eyebrow, but thought and said nothing.

Dash started when he caught his breath. He wiped his brow, and despite the relative cool of the room, he was sweating bullets.

"I," Dash started, "I haven't been a good friend lately. I've been ignoring you. We haven't properly talked since last month."

"No, not since July." Kwan corrected.

"Yes," Dash nodded, "You're right. I have been sorta… no, not sorta… I have been neglecting our friendship. It was totally my fault. I been… drifting away and I want you to know that it was not your fault. It had nothing to do with you, it was totally me. Totally. And I'm sorry. You're my best friend, and it was wrong of me to be so spacey. I apologize."

"Apology accepted, and I should've you know, made more of an effort to see what was going on." Kwan acknowledged his part (though really small) in this whole thing.

There and then the two quashed the idea that football players had not emotions or manners.

"But Dash," Kwan went on, "I know you. I know you too well for that to be the only reason you came here. You're having an anxiety attack or some shit. You're either like… in love or in trouble… maybe both."

"I guess you know me well, huh?"

"Of course I do. Since we were two man. You only get like this when you want to tell people something. And not something small, like you got an 'A' on a test."

"Well," Dash said, "Promise you won't freak out."

"Dash," Kwan started, "You know me well. You know that not many things phase me. But, um… seeing you freak out like this, doesn't mean that I won't."

"I appreciate the honesty in that." Dash said, "You always very straight with me and that's why we're friends."

"So what is it?" Kwan asked me, "I mean it can't be that bad. The cops haven't bust down my door yet. Wait… are they going too?" Kwan asked with a comical sort of innocence that Dash had shed long ago.

"No." Dash answered plainly.

"Okay, you're not in trouble, at least not that kind of trouble." Kwan remarked with genuine relief.

"No."

"So?"

Dash looked his friend in the eye. His blue eyes were piercing into Kwan's deep green ones. Kwan would have usually folded under such pressure, but he saw the look and Dash's eyes. The only word for it: fear. Kwan, then, mentally put on some armor. It was like he was on the football field and saw trepidation in the eyes of the enemy. There was no need to look away from a scared enemy. There was no excuse to look away from a frightened friend.

Dash started, "We played in the sandbox together. We went through elementary, and middle school together. We're almost done with high school. You've known me all my life. I mean you know more about me than anyone, my parents included. I mean, we have secrets. We've, you know, covered for each other."

"Of course," Kwan assured him, "That's what friends do. They have each other's backs."

"Right." Dash sort of wagged his pointer finger, "What I'm saying is that I always trusted you with my secrets and you always trusted me."

"I still do." Kwan said instantly, almost instinctively, "Especially in that place called Caper High. That place is Hell on Earth."

"Thank you, I am glad you still trust me, even though I've been a shitty friend."

Kwan countered, "The fact that you are here right now making amends is why I trust you. So just tell me what it is. You look like you're about to have have a heart attack."

"Kwan, what do… what do you think of me?"

"What?"

"When you see me, what do you see?" Dash's brain was trying to find a way to get him to say the words.

"I see Dash."

"And who is Dash?" Dash asked, the question was more directed at himself. "Who am I? What am I?"

"That's up to Dash to decide." Kwan answered, accessing some wisdom from far beyond his years, "But right now, above all other things, he looks afraid. I don't know what the fuck it is, but I need you to spit it out before you fucking pass out!"

"I'm sorry." Dash replied, focusing on his friend.

"Just say it." Kwan said. " _I already know it."_ Kwan thought

"Know what?" Dash asked.

"What?!" Kwan asked.

"You said, 'I already know.' I asked, 'what do you know?'

"Dash, I didn't say that out loud. I only thought it, but you seem to be all psychic-y today." Kwan shrugged it off as coincidence. Dash, knowing more about himself, his destiny, and his fate, put that fact in storage. He would unpack it with his boyfriend later.

"But, what do you know?" Dash asked. "Or what do you think you know?"

"I don't know. So why don't you just be straight with me and tell me?"

Dash chuckled nervously, and scratched the back of his head. " _Fuck it,"_ Dash thought, " _Might as well just tell him."_ His voice cracked at bit "Ummm… I…"

"Yes?"

Dash said the two words with a surprisingly level tone, "I'm gay." Without missing beat, Dash tensed up, held his breath, and studied his friend's reaction. Kwan was unmoved. His face showed no sign of… anything. That petrified Dash like nothing else. Kwan sat there, he leaned back a bit, grabbed his glass of water and took a sip. He put the glass back down on the coaster.

Finally, Kwan opened his mouth to speak, and did so with a sigh of relief, "Finally…"

"What?" Dash asked, finally breathing again, "You knew?"

"I'm your best friend, of course I fucking knew." Kwan responded, as if Dash had told him his preference for dinner"I said in trouble or in love. You dating anyone?"

Dash felt like a million pounds had been lifted off of his shoulders. Someone who he knew and loved dearly, well, knew everything. Dash felt a mixture of exhilaration and relief. His mind was racing, almost high from the experience. He felt like a million dollars, no one could stop him. He felt so happy that he almost felt like crying. Almost. Dash also felt like he was opening up another chapter of his life, a new volume of his story.

Dash snapped back to reality, his voice bashful. "Yeah, I uh have a boyfriend."

"Fenton?" Kwan asked.

"Umm how did you know?" Dash asked, not in excitement and surprise. His voice was meek and shy. Luckily enough for Kwan, that was the part of Dash that he knew better than even Dash's parents. Kwan remembered this Dash and had always done his utmost to protect him. Kwan had acted like extra thorns that protected the rose of Dash's sensitivity. Dash had thorns of his own, but Kwan was his support system.

"Well," Kwan started, "The two were fucking every morning in the hallway. Don't worry, everybody just saw the 'bullying'." Kwan did air quotes, "But, I knew, and could see that you two were just 'rough-flirting'. And since I was the person who spoke to you the most over the years. You were obsessed with him. I remember in one conversation we had… I remembered because I counted. You said 'Fenton' fifty-five times in a thirty minute conversation."

"Did I do that?" Dash asked, thinking back.

"Yup." Kwan answered.

"When did you figure out-"

"I can't tell you. I mean, I just figured it out. It was just part of the Dash package. I could tell that girls don't interest you in the slightest. Every type, build, shape, and shade of girl in that place throw themselves at you. I don't know if you're repulse-"

"No, they're just sorta there." Dash answered shrugging. "I mean some of them are pretty and whatever, but pretty doesn't do anything for me."

"And I saw it years ago," Kwan answered. "You're my friend and who you want to sleep with was none of my business. I knew that I was never one of those people you wanted to sleep with-"

"Eww." Dash said, stunned by the notion, "Are you fucking kidding me. It would be like sleeping with my brother. Besides, you're not my type. My type is-"

"Fenton," Kwan cut him off. "

"Danny…" Dash exhaled with innocent longing. He had completely relaxed, by this point. A yoke had been removed from about his neck, and he felt an overwhelming freedom. He felt like he had been given license to be himself. He felt liberated to just exist in a way that didn't feel like hell warmed up.

"How long have you been dating?" Kwan asked, seeing a joy on Dash's face that he had never seen before. Dash's face was usually like stone. Chiseled and handsome, but austere and unmoving. The emotion that was pouring like a mighty stream was Dash. It was the real Dash. Kwan was watching his friend bloom into the beauty he was. That gave the Kwan a feeling of satisfaction. Yes, Kwan felt a warm, fuzzy feeling of excitement, grinning, and relief for the boy, the gay boy, sitting across from him. Kwan was smiling, grinning, and he was not in control of it.

"For a couple of weeks now, but we haven't gotten the chance to go on a proper date yet… Slept together a few times-"

"Wait what... sex?" Kwan asked, his smile fading only a bit.

"Oh God no… I mean actual sleep. His parents were out of town and he said he was lonely so we…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Kwan's smile resumed its positions on his face, "You were in the same bed with someone you've been crushing on since forever and you did nothing. And I mean, he had been into you too. You shared a bed?"

"His bed." Dash added.

"Wow," Kwan said, "You, that's a big deal."

"He's not ready yet, and I can wait for as long as he needs. I think it makes it that much more special if we wait."

Kwan was wide-eyed, "You really, really like him."

Dash's voice was serious, and commanding."This, he, is the best thing that has ever happened to me," Dash started, "I'm not going to fuck this up. I want him, need him like nothing else in this world. He fucking like completes me man. I felt like a fucking nothing before I knew I could have him. He makes me happier than I ever could've imagined."

Dash was still alpha male in Kwan's eyes. He was the biggest and strongest of anyone in the school. But, at the end of the day, even alpha need some love. Dash had found that in Danny. Again, Kwan found himself at a loss for words. Dash had blossomed truly into the emotional creature that was humanity. However, school was not humane. It was the opposite of civilization, and something as sensitive Dash's secret could not just be thrown to the wolves. Kwan made a pact with himself to defend Dash in anyway he could. He couldn't watch his friend, fully come into his own and then be crucified. He would be defending Dash as he had been doing for so long.

"Umm.." Dash started, "If you figured it out, does the team-"

"They don't have a clue, don't worry about that. I covered for you." Kwan answered.

"Covered?"

"Well," Kwan started, "When you weren't around, they would come around and talk about how you didn't have a girlfriend and how you didn't seem interested in 'Amity bitches'."

"Oh?"

"So I told them that you don't date girls from our school. I told them that you don't like the baggage of having to see the chicks after you hump them and dump them. I told them you got girls from other schools and other towns, so that you can just fuck them, leave them, and never see them again."

"You did that for me?" Dash started.

"Of course. You're my friend and I wasn't going to let the football team fuck you… Uh, bad phrase."

Dash chuckled. "Don't worry. It was funny. I'm not some sensitive dweeb. Jokes and mistakes don't bother me. Piss, shit, and sex jokes still make me laugh/"

"Same old Dash?" K asked.

"Same old Dash." D confirmed.

"Good. Nothing's different, just something finally confirmed." Kwan remarked. "But I'm kinda disappointed."

"Why?" Dash sked curious, and knowing that the answer was going to be funny.

"I mean, I'm not gonna get the swishy, sassy now. I mean is Danny like that?"

"Well, he's not one of those 'fierce' types, but he's swishier than I am. Not too much though."

"Um dude, I'm straight and I have more 'swish-factor' than you. You walk around like a fucking soldier or cop or something. Sass is not your thing. And I bet you couldn't date someone like that either."

"Exactly." Dash answered before they fell into a comfortable, friendly.

Kwan perked up when a thought popped into his head, "Not trying to be all overly concerned, but is the locker room uncomfortable for you?"

"No, why would it be?"

"It's just that whole place is full of a bunch of dumb guys cracking jokes, and you know being weird."

"I genuinely laughed at the jokes," Dash answered, starting to smile and chuckle when he remembered one in particular, "Honestly, that one Kowalski told about the kielbasa and vaseline was pretty funny."

"So, the locker room ain't a problem?"

"No, I love it in there. Not like that. None of the people who occupy that place are even close to being my type. I'm good in there, especially since the rest of the school is located in hell."

"Okay, fair enough." Kwan said.

"Well," Dash started about his second objective, "How has romance been for you lately?"

"Dry."

"How dry?"

"Nothing." K sighed, closing his eyes and leaning back.

"Not even a handie?" Dash asked

"Nope." Kwan started, "Unless using your own hand counts. In that case, I'm Casanova."

"I bet if I looked at your internet history-" Dash started.

"You'd be grossed out or bored, or however you feel about lesbians." Kwan said, eyes still closed, speaking in a relaxed tone. It was truly back to the old days with Dash, talking about lesbian porn.

"Bored." Dash nodded in the affirmative. "And they need to shut up with all that woman moaning."

"Exactly, well, on you being bored." He sat up and opened his eyes again, "The second part, meaning the lesbians moaning, for the sake of our renewed friendship, let's agree to disagree."

"So," the gay teen started, pouring himself a new glass of water "You should try and get yourself a girlfriend. Not just a piece of ass either."

"You know the girl I like." Kwan's cheeks took on a slight red tinge, "You're dating her brother."

"And I am here to also tell you that you need to try with her."

Kwan's brow furrowed, "Why?"

"Because you like her." Dash stated in way that made the sentence sound incomplete.

"And…."

"She likes you, Kwan."

"How do you know, man? Like don't fuck with me, dude. Did she tell you?"

"No." Dash stated plainly.

"Then how do you know."

"She told him?"

"WHO?!" Kwan was excited.

"Danny."

The straight one spoke in fits and starts, "Oh shit, that means it's true. She didn't just say it to you so that you would like her. She actually- I… Wait, like I actually have a chance?"

"Yes. Just ask her, she'll say yes. And you two can have fun."

"I don't think of her like that." Kwan said, "I think of her the same way you think of Danny. The Fentons are our thing."

Dash nodded.

More comfortable silence between them.

"Yes, but I know you're jealous because I get the one with the dick." Dash chuckled.

"No thanks, I have one of my own." Kwan answered back quickly

"Yeah, so I get double the fun." Dash matched his wit and surpassed his brevity.

"Three holes versus two, Dash. The women win."

"Men don't have periods or PMS." Dash answered back.

"Women have tits to play with." Kwan replied.

"Men have balls to play with."

"Women are more flexible."

"Generally, yes, but Danny is gifted.

"Uh, Dash, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm curious-"

"Oh?" Dash eyes opened wide. " _Maybe Danny could get that spit roasting he seems so interested in."_

"No... as in asking questions." Kwan put an end to that speculation quickly.

"Oh."

"When you get to you know, the endzone with Danny are you like… giving or receiving?"

"Giving, but I wouldn't mind trying the other way around to see if I like it. Why?"

"Again, just curious."

"It's fine."

"It's…" Kwan started, knowing that he could not offend Dash, "I guess, I know what an asshole does and what come out of it and it skeeves me out a little. I guess I know what I put my though, especially with those school lunches"

"First things first, keep that thing in tip top shape. Actually it doesn't matter, you guys pixelate it anyway." Dash looked at Kwan, who was now laughing hysterically." I get it, I feel the same way about women. Thinking about what comes out of a vagina skeeves me out too."

"Fair enough."

"Man, I missed this, you and me, just shooting the breeze." Dash said.

"Non Sequitur shit, yup."

"I'm happy to have my friend back."

"Me too." Kwan nodded, "So when are we gonna all hang out? You, me, your boy, and my girl?"

"Well, she ain't your girl till you walk up to here and say," Dash started his killer impression of Kwan, here in bold, " **Hey babe, is there something in your eye?** She'll ask what it is and then you can say ' **It's just a sparkle.** '

Kwan scoffed, "That's fucking dreadful."

It was Dash's turn to laugh.

Kwan was actually a little irked that the pickup line was so bad, "Like bro, that is so fucking… just yuck. I hope that cheesy stuff didn't work on Danny."

Dash shrugged, smirked, and spoke still amused, "Maybe…"

"Really."

"No," Dash became serious, "But all you have to do is be you. Just be your normal, cheery, friendly self and ask her out on a date. She'll say yes. I guarantee it."

"But Dash, I'm nervous."

"You're not anymore nervous than I was telling you I'm into dudes." Dash said. "Come one. You're wasting away here. I'm sure a real girl is more interesting than a couple of women who are paid to have sex with each other. A real girl, who you have been in love with since fourth grade. A real girl, who if she is even a tenth as sweet and kind as my Danny would be the perfect girl for you. A girl who works out and wants a partner." Dash raised his eyebrows, satisfied with how he sent

"Dash, you sure you're gay, the way you just said all that I think I'm going to have to fight you over her. And we just made up."

"Oh no, don't worry. I'm quite interested in my boyfriend's body, and intellect and knowledge. I'm quite fond of everything he has to offer, and no woman can offer any of that to me. No woman can give me the things I want. No woman can even give me a semi. Jazz is yours for the dating man. All you have to do tomorrow is find here and tell her you want her company." Dash was sincere, "I want this for you. All the things you've done for me now, by accepting me. Everything you've done in the past by protecting me, my name, and my secret… I can't thank you enough. I want you to be as happy as I am with Danny. If the answer to that is Jazz, go do it."

"Okay… okay, you're right. Tomorrow, I'm gonna find her and ask her out? Where to, do you think?"

"Nasty Burger should be fine for a casual chat for the first time. Take her to the movies. You're lucky that you can do it in town." Dash commented, strangely not having even the slightest trace of negativity in his voice. Danny made all the challenges go away for him.

"Huh?" Kwan was confused, "What do you mean?"

"Danny and I can't be seen in town dating, are you kidding me?"

"Right, I didn't think about it. I'm sorry that it's like that."

"One day it won't be," Dash replied, "But don't worry about me. You go and woo this girl."

"I will, tomorrow." Kwan replied, "I promise."

"Good, I should get going, man," Dash started, standing up.

"Wait, sit down," Kwan started. "I need to do something. I know that you... Your parents."

"I can't tell them." Dash sat down, his voice getting small like a whisper. Kwan knew those were the only two people on Earth that he could scare him. "Kwan… I can't fucking tell them."

"I know, that's why I want to make a go-plan, just in case shit hits the fan."

"Yeah. Doesn't have to be today, but I want you to bring over some clothes that we can keep in one of the spare rooms. My folks want another person in the house so they would be happy to have you, should that arise."

"Okay, thanks."

"And another thing," Kwan continued, "I want us to establish a code word."

"Code word?"

"Yeah, something you can text me that lets me know that you need to get out. I can be over quicker than the cops, and all you have to do is run. We need two, one that you can text, and one that you can say in a phone call without it sounding too strange."

"I can text you SOS." Dash answered, his voice making the slightest of recoveries.

"No, that's something you could pocket text by mistake, or that autocorrect may send by mistake. Make it a word that is recognizable but that we would never say." Kwan was a good strategist. Dash needed to have one or more possible places of safety. Dash's father was not a homophobe, but something beyond description. It was not so much bigotry as it was a need for him to be in control of all the things around him. Dash being gay did not fit in the master plan, so he would be apt to get violent if he found out. Kwan knew these things and wanted to plan it out.

"Shakespeare. That's a word I'd never use and you will know what it mean."

"So long as you spell it right."

I can spell it," Dash scoffed, regaining his voice "S-H-A-K-E-S-P-E-A-R-E"

"Okay, and a sentence for the phone." Kwan reiterated.

"Kwan, I need help with Lancer's science homework."

"But, he doesn't teach sci-" Kwan then realized, "That works, so long as-"

"They don't know who teaches what."

"Okay, that's it then. Remember to come over to my place with some clothes, bring at least a seven days worth. Well, not all at once, but I want you to have at least a week's worth of clothes here. Okay?"

"Yes, that's a good idea." Dash started getting up, "I really should be getting home now."

"Sure," Kwan said, "It was nice seeing you again man. And I'm happy for you. I really am."

They both walked to the door, Dash putting on his jacket again.

"Thanks man, I'll make sure to keep in touch man. _And_ after tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have a reason to be happy for you. C'mon man, think about it, two football buddies dating the Fenton siblings. It has double date written all over it." Dash suggested.

"Okay, but let me ask her if she'll date me first, okay?"

"Okay," Dash said, "I don't know what to do, do I hug you or shake your hand or-"

"It's okay," Kwan realized that Dash was happy, "You can hug me, man."

Dash sorta reached over and gave him what we will call 'hetero-hug'. It was sort of the way an adult man would hug his elderly father. It was stiff (don't even go there) and the hug conveyed no emotion other than camaraderie. For both of them, that was the correct word.

"Okay, I'll see you later, bro." Kwan took this as his cue to open the door and let Dash go home. Dash crossed the threshold and went down the same garden path. Kwan shut the door to his house and watched. He watched as Dash made his way back to that car. Dash still walked like a state trooper, no swish. It was the same old Dash, just with a few old suspicions confirmed. Dash was back, happier and freer than ever. He was back, in more danger than ever.


	22. Twenty-two

It was lunchtime on Wednesday the twentieth. Danny skipped it as usual, and was at his locker switching out his books. The going had been easy this week, normal. His life was coming together nicely. Tucker and Sam were keeping their distance. Dash was still close in. They spoke on the phone, via text, and whenever they could find time to be alone. They had agreed to try again for a proper date on the Friday. Danny shut the locker, and secured his items. He was so enthralled by his thoughts that he didn't immediately realize the person towering above him. He stepped back from his locker and bumped into what felt like a wall of muscle.

"Shit," he turned around to see Dash looking him in the eye, "You… you scared me."

Dash just stared at him, his eyes looking at Danny like a piece of meat. Dash's intense gaze was not so much a set of bedroom eyes, as they were animalistic. He looked like he did before they got together.

"Isn't this kinda risky?" Danny asked, whispering. "

"I don't fucking care!" Dash growled, as grabbed his boyfriend, pushed, and pinned him aggressively against the lockers. It made a thud that echoes through the halls. That sound, second only to the moans of Danny started an inevitable arousal in Dash. He didn't care, he was getting some satisfaction right now. He was going to have his boyfriend somehow.

Danny's eyes widened with disbelief. He didn't know what was going on. He struggled under Dash's strength. Truly struggled. His ghost powers would have been able to push Dash off him easily, but no amount of real resistance was working. For the first time, in a long time he felt completely vulnerable under Dash. He hated the fact, but his cock was stiffening uncomfortably in the briefs he was wearing.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked, his voice struggling, but not as loud as it was before more from fear of actually being bullied than anything else. He didn't know if Dash has finally snapped.

"You know what the fuck I'm doing." Dash did not relent, showing no sign of emotion, "Don't ask me any dumb questions, Fenton."

Danny felt small, truly at Dash's mercy. His cock was growing, throbbing uncomfortably, and feeling how the denim in his jeans did not give. It took less than fifteen seconds for him to reach full mast. He was so hard, and the pressure in his pants hurt him in such a good way. He felt like the sexual person he wanted to be, the person he had no time to be. All he could do was writhe, as Dash seemed to lose his mind over him. Dash looked down at Danny's bulge and salivated at the site. Instinctively, Dash's eyes widened a bit, and he wanted to rip Danny's pants down and appreciate that cock for a while. This wasn't the place or the time. He caught himself ogling and looked up, resuming his 'bully' persona. He did it just in the nick of time, before Danny could notice, and possibly soften.

 _'For fuck's sake'_ Dash thought.

What Dash did this time was different from anytime before. Dash threw caution to the wind and grabbed the thing which had been prodding him in the leg. When Danny looked down and saw where Dash's hand was headed, he became breathless, joyfully erect and aroused. When Dash's left hand made initial contact, he gasped and gritted his teeth. Danny reached for the lockers behind him looking for something to grab. He found nothing but the vents in the lower lockers and dug in.

Danny's dick felt large in his hands, unwieldily large and delightfully thick. Dash took a moment to feel the helmet, which seemed shapely and meaty. Then, he focused on the shaft, again, not only focusing on the length, which was impressive, but the girth. Dash felt as if he was grasping a beer can in his hands. The blond top almost broke down in admiration, but again caught himself in the last moment. He wanted every second of this. He wanted every inch

Dash continued this new, hot variation of his routine by rubbing, with a great degree of vigor, but also a gentleness that suggested that Dash was not trying to hurt him. Dash would never hurt him, especially in school. Danny could feel himself grinding into Dash's touch. He could feel as his back arched up and away from the lockers. He couldn't help it, Dash made him weak and made him sexual and alive. Dash took a careful look to the left and right. It was the middle of lunch so there was no one around. Dash also made sure to keep his movements aggressive so to the passerby, they saw the usual.

Once Dash saw the coast was clear, he leaned into Danny. He was not going to kiss him, rather he leaned in to the left side of Danny's ear to whisper to him. If you think Dashwas going to whisper sweet nothings into Danny's ear, you've been reading the wrong story.

"I bet you fucking like that." Dash whispered aggressively in his ear, keeping up his rubbing, with moderate speed,"Don't you?"

"Mmhmm," Danny nodded vigorously under Dash's touch, his eyes closed. Danny thought, _"I wish he would just take me right here."_

Here's the thing: Dash heard it loud and clear. He responded out loud, "You want it right here?"

"Mmhmm" Danny responded not realizing that his thought had just been read. His mind was not thinking about supernatural powers, but the power Dash recognized it, well somewhat. His mind was too preoccupied thinking of the next dirty thing to whisper to his boyfriend. He went flat out obscene.

"You have a big cock for a little twink," Dash whispered. "You fucking dream of big, muscly jocks like me touching you. And _fucking_ you."

'Yes," Danny managed to get out quietly, in a sharped breath stopping himself from moaning the way he wanted. "I dream of you touching me and _fucking me_." He managed to whisper. He looked back and forth, and the hall was still mercifully empty.

"You gonna be my little fucktoy?" Dash asked, seeing that the hallway was still clear.

"Yes," Danny answered, "I want to be your little fucktoy." Danny thought, _"Fuck, I wanna cum."_ Again, Dash heard it.

"No." Dash responded, "You don't get to cum."

"Yes,"said the smaller one, he squirmed some more.

"Good boy." Dash whispered to him. "Good that you know your place."

"Please." Danny begged, "Don't stop. I'm so close."

Dash did the cruelest thing had had ever done to Danny. He took his hands off of him. He stepped back, gently lowering Danny to the floor. He hovered over Danny, boxing him in by putting both his arms on the lockers. Danny was horny, and angry. Dissatisfaction had never been so hot, or so sweet.

"Dash?" Danny asked. "Ughgff." That was the best way to transcribe into English the gutteral noise that Danny made when he fit the floor and his dick was getting no more stimulation.

Dash bent down, "Revenge for last Friday."

"What?" Danny's mind was swimming as his cock remained hard in Dash's presence.

"You think I forgot, you tease. 'Salami in bed', ring a bell?"

"Oh… um..." Danny remembered how he teased Dash vividly. That elicited another throb. Dash had stopped at just the right moment. He was proud, and Danny was left lusting and yearning for more. Danny was left craving his boyfriend's presence and touch. They both wanted sex, the blond wanted it more. The blond knew that his boyfriend was not there yet, but he would extract every bit of pleasure he could in the pursuit. For the quarterback, watching his boyfriend squirm beneath him was his turn on, his fetish (among others, but you pervs must wait a few chapters to find those out).

Dash spoke again, "Well two can play at that game, Fenton."

" **MM** hmm." Danny moaned, shattered that he was unsafe from the teasing even at school."

"Be ready on Friday at 8," Dash smirked, whispering "I'll be expecting you." Dash leaned in closer to his ear, "And don't forget."

"What?" Danny asked feeling a giddy excitement.

"Look sexy for me."

* * *

Meanwhile, across the school…

Jazz had taken her seat in the cafeteria. She sat alone in a corner close the windows. From there, she could look out over the track and football field. Beyond that, she could look into the trees and let her mind wander. She was not popular by any means, but was too pretty to be messes with. All groups within the place left her alone and she, for her part, enjoyed the solitude. She could be left to her own devices to ponder the big questions that haunted her. She could look over the barren track or into the glorious colors of the autumn leaves and think. She wondered about herself, and her future from time to time.

She wondered if she would ever find love, or confine herself in solitude. She reflected on her past and dreaded her future in a way more indigenous to women in their middle age. She would not dwell on these facts. They were to uncomfortable and intimate for her. The actions she took or refused to take and the repercussions, would be hers. No matter how mature she was or pretended to be, facing consequences head on was scary shit. She also refrained from thinking about herself, worried that she would come to the realization that she was lonely and miserable. She was never physically alone in Fenton

She sat in the place for other reasons too. That view, previously described, gave her the ability to watch. She could watch the people run laps around the track or practice whatever sport. She could take it all in without arousing suspicion or being noticed. Well, she was watching _him._ She could watch as he stretched, warmed up, and jogged. She would keep her eyes on his muscular physique when he wore less in the heat. She was breathless when she saw his arms and his legs gripped her interest in a way that she would never admit.

She always studied his face when he exercised. She appreciated it as an artist would. She would start at his chin and work her way up. His features were sharp and handsome. God had taken his time on Kwan in her opinion. His jaws were angular and sharp, which went perfectly with his broad, adonic shoulders. Above his chin was what she saw as the perfect lips for kissing. They were full, but did not look as if they were overpowering. From time to time, he would smile during his jogs. Then and only then could she appreciate his perfectly white and straight teeth. Being the son of the man who owned the only dentist's office in town made for perfection. His nose was a perfect point. His eyes… oh how she loved his eyes. She loved the almond shape that feld those pools of emotion. She could look into those green orbs forever. They were a deep green, like fresh pine needles. She wished more than anything just to see them up close. She knew that if he ever looked at her, even gently, she would simply melt. She looked at his hair next. It was straight and black, styled conservatively, She liked that. Her hair was red, long, and adorned her face perfectly. Just as he liked.

She just wanted to talk to him and know if the rumors were true. She had heard the whispers around the school that Kwan was a softee. They said that he was just about the friendliest person in the school. From what she had seen of his physicality and comportment, she believed it. He seemed a trustworthy and kindly sort. From what she had observed, he did not seem like the rest of the football team. He seemed too decent to fall into that strange trap of 'assholeness' that defined many of the athletes that attended Casper. She knew that her insight was incomplete but she did not doubt its accuracy.

 _"Doesn't matter,"_ she thought, _"It's not going to happen anyway."_

So, there she sat looking outside, at the same track, field, and trees, wondering what could be. It was Wednesday, so Kwan would be out there, jogging. With the chilly weather, his build would be hidden by a tracksuit. At the very least, she could watch his hair move around in the late September breeze.

This Wednesday was different. She looked out onto her domain and saw that he was not there. She frowned a bit at that and returned to the 'food' in front of her. Her bit of joy for the day did not present itself and she sighted. She pouted in a way that did not befit someone of her maturity, but, nonetheless, expressed her emotion truly.

Across the room stood the person whose absence saddened her. Kwan walked in through the double doors. He had not been in the caf during his lunch period in years, but there he stood, eyeing her. He had chickened out on Monday. He did not even try, too afraid of rejection. On Tuesday he ran around the track, not jogging but sprinting. Little did he know that Jasmine watched him with utter amazement that he could run that way for so long. It only served aroused more of her interest. He did not know it but he made the odds of getting a 'yes' for a date, go from very certain to absolute. More than anything she wanted to be around him. More than anything he wanted to be around her.

He decided that he would make his move today. He was fresh today. He had decided to dress less like a degenerate and try to get her attention. He wore a light, full zip sweater, black in color. He had it zipped up to about nipple level. Underneath the sweater, he wore a deep green v-neck t-shirt. (His mother had purchased it months before, saying that it matched his eyes.) All things he was wearing up top showed the strength of his arms and the tightness of his core. He wore one of his pairs of 'nice' jeans. The denim was dark blue. They were form fitting, but not overly tight. They showed his well-defined leg muscles to maximum advantage. He wore black leather shoes, that looked appropriate for a job on the stock exchange. His belt matched his shoes and added a bit of glimmer with a golden buckle.

He was smiling nervously as he walked over to the windows, to where she sat alone. A few of the girls turned their heads as he passed, either gawking at his physique or gawking at the clothes that showed them off. Some girls, in that moment, realized they were attracted to Kwan. Some others, who had known it, were now sure of it. Kwan carried his tray feeling like a millions eyes were staring at him. He chalked it up to nerves. He was only half right.

...

She heard a sort of collective gasp. It was not in any way threatening, but it caught her attention. She looked up and saw him. Her eyes opened wide, her lips curving upwards in delight. He was near.

 _"There's absolutely no way."_ She said to herself internally, _"He's not coming towards me. He can't be."_

She had not meant to, and did not know it, but she started blushing furiously. On most girls it would not have been noticed under the makeup. Jasmine was not in such luck, as she never wore makeup to school. She looked down in nervousness at her 'lunch'.

…

 _"I think I have a chance."_ Kwan thought, _"I think she's… she's smiling… oh my God, she's smiling because of me… I hope… maybe…"_ He paused. _"So… Dash was right."_

He only had about fifteen more feet to walk. He walked it with more poise than he could rightly take credit for. His shoulders were broad, his posture was straight. He reached his destination and sat across from the one he had been thinking about for years and years.

…

"Hi," He said, his voice level and smooth. He was looking at her. She heard his voice loud and clear and lifted her head up.

"Hi." She responded, doing the worst thing possible, looking into his eyes. "Nice to see you."

"It's nice to see you, too." Kwan remarked.

"You look nice." She said, feeling awkward. Her toes were curling in her shoes.

"So do you. You always look nice." He responded.

"Well," she started blushing again, "Thank you."

"You don't mind if I sit here and talk to you, do you?"

"No, not at all." She said, Her heart overpowered her and formed a new sentence, "Actually, I was kinda hoping you would."

"Really?!" He asked, his voice still at an appropriate volume, but more excited than he would have wanted. He forsook the whole cool and smooth routine. It wasn't him. He was a dork who could play football and he was fine with that. He looked into her eyes, marveling at how the sunlight played with her aqua eyes. He could look into them forever and be adrift in those benevolent oceans. (Yuck, let's be glad he didn't say that to her.)

"Yes, really." Jazz replied.

"Well," Kwan started before swallowing quickly, and thus exhibiting his nervous tell, "Do you mind if we make this more than just a one time, cafeteria thing?"

She gasped, forgetting the maturity that dripped off of her. She felt like a true teenager again. She put her hands up to her mouth in pure amazement, "Are you asking me on a date?"

"That depends," Kwan answered, "Do you want it to be, because I want to date you."

"Yes," Jasmine squeaked quietly, and smiled, flashing her perfect white teeth "Yes, I'll go out with you. I… Just yes…"

"Umm… great... Where do you want to go?"

"If you don't mind, I don't want the pressure," Jazz answered, "Can we just go get a burger and fries after school. Anything is better than this so-called food they slip us here."

"I knew I liked you." Kwan smiled, "Yes, that sounds perfect. When is good for you?"

"Friday, let's say, five o'clock." She suggested.

"That sounds perfect." Kwan said, relaxing.

"Fine, um, good." She was still excited, but now relaxed, "SO do I like have- Like are you my- uh… So I can say you're my boyfriend now?"

"If I can say you're my girlfriend?"

"Yes." She answered, her voice returning to normal.

"Thanks." He answered, "Let's exchange numbers."

"Ooh, right," She reached for her pocket for her phone.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Dash came over to Kwan's with some clothes. They picked the spare bedroom closest to Kwan's for him to store his clothes. Dash was curious as to how he was allowed to stow away some extra clothes there. Dash sat on the

"Um… your parents cool with this?" Dash asked as he folded a shirt.

"Of course they are." Kwan answered, "I told them."

"What?!" Dash almost went ballistic.

"Calm down," Kwan reassured him. "I told them that your parents are doing better in their business. Since they're doing so well, they will be going out of town more often and for longer intervals. I said that I wouldn't want you getting lonely in the big house all by yourself and that you should be able to come here when your folks are out in Chicago, New York or Boston or wherever they go. My parents love having people over, so you're welcome here. My mom said this is _your_ room."

"Well, I have to make sure to thank them. And thanks-"

"What for?"

"For covering for me, again."

"Dash," Kwan started dismissing the praise, "That's what friends are for. Especially best friends. I mean come on, we used to play in the sandbox together. You kept me out of a lot of trouble too."

Dash answered "I mean when we were kids things were easier. Remember when you broke Mrs. Clemmons' window?"

"Yes I do."

"And you ran to my place and needed an alibi." Dash reminisced.

"I never ran so fast in my life. I remember I had the ball in my hand that did it."

"And remember what I told your folks," Dash asked, "You were at my house playing video games the whole time."

"And we got away with it." Kwan answered. "Good thing she wasn't home."

"I still have the ball in my room," Dash remarked. "But that stuff isn't as serious as this is now."

"It was that serious to me then." Kwan said, "We got each other's backs, man. That's forever, man. Besides, I owe you. Jasmine and I are going on a date. I'm gonna call her Jasmine until she gives me permission to call her otherwise."

"Told you she liked you." Dash answered. "Didn't I?"

"Yes. You did."

"So," Dash restarted, "Where are you going?"

"Nasty Burger. Her suggestion." Kwan replied.

"Damn, both of them are calm, not too demanding." Dash answered.

"Yes," Kwan admitted, "Whatever that Fenton gene is, I'm happy it's there."

"And she is a pretty." Dash said, "Prettier than Paulina, but don't tell her I said so."

"I agree." Kwan said, "And she doesn't wear any makeup. I love that. She's the only redhead I ever saw who did not have and freckles. She does have the cutest dimples though when she smile. And her eyes are so blue."

"Someone's in love." Dash teased.

"Look who's talking." K turned the tables, and imitated Dash's voice and cadence, "You said, '"I'm not going to fuck this up. I want him, need him like nothing else in this world. He fucking like completes me man. I felt like a fucking nothing before I knew I could have him. He makes me happier than I ever could've imagined."

"God. Was I that fucking mushy?"

"I got douche chills," Kwan chuckled.

"Fuck you," D responded.

"No thanks." Kwan responded.

"You sure?" Dash was sure he was going to win this one. "Cum over to the dark side, you might like it."

Kwan looked Dash in the eye. He held a straight face for about three seconds before he started laughing harder than he had in a very very long time. "No."

"I'll stop now." Dash said being considerate, "You don't want to hear about homo-sex."

"I'm sure you don't wanna hear about hetero-sex."

"Well, you're not there yet. You haven't had a date yet." Dash said.

"Well, neither have you."

"I have some time put in." Dash answered, "But we're going to fix it on Friday. And after the treatment I gave Danny during lunchtime, I think I'm gonna 'get to the endzone' as you call it, fairly soon. Might be a birthday thing."

"Well, you're the psychic mind reader dude, so I believe you. You would know." Kwan said, pointing out something that he had been thinking about.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The whole knowing about my wanting to smoke a blunt, and the other thing."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"It was like you read my mind bro." Kwan answered, almost confronting him on what seemed to be a change in him.

Dash's phone buzzed in his pocket. "Hold that thought, man."

Dash opened his phone and went to the Message app. It was his boyfriend.

Danny: i'm sure u red my mind earlier while we were 'playing'. U shud cum ovr so we can tlk abt it.

Dask looked up from his phone. His face the picture of shock mixed with a fair amount of horror.

"K- K- Kwan…" Dash looked at his friend.

"What?" Kwan looked concerned.

"You said that I'm psychic?"

"You're something, like I swear you can tell what I'm thinking without me saying it, probably because we've been friends for so long."

"Well," Dash gulped, "Let's test it. Think of a number and maybe I'll guess it."

"Okay, I guess." Kwan said, still concerned. He then thought of a number, making sure it was random and not a number associated with the football team or any major event to Dash. He thought, _"1,643,202"_

"One million six hundred forty-three thousand two hundred two." Dash said repeating what he heard clear as day.

"What the fuck? How the fuck?" Kwan did not usually swear. "You're... I... What the fuck?"

"Okay, okay." Dash said, "Just one more thing. Think of the most outlandish sentence ever to really make sure."

"Okay…" Kwan said more impressed than scared, _"Dash Baxter is hopelessly attracted to Mister Lancer."_

"Ewww." Dash said. "Lancer? Just yuck. I would quicker do out with you."

"You said outlandish…" Kwan's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Dash since when?"

"Umm, Kwan I need to go…" Dash realized there was something to talk about. Wednesday the twentieth was not over yet, not by a long shot.

"Where?" Kwan asked

"I have to go and figure this thing out." Dash reached for his letterman, and standing up. "I'll call you later."

Dash left the house in a hurry. Kwan just stood in the room, impressed and confused.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	23. Twenty-three

CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER 22

* * *

Mister Fenton let him in. Danny was up in his room, but Dash got the uncanny feeling that he would spend at least a little time with his boyfriend's father. Jack seemed to be (and certainly was) a kindly sort of fellow. Dash felt more comfortable around Jack than he did around his own father. Hell, Dash felt more comfortable around Lancer than around the man after whom he was named. Presently, Jack was holding only a glass of sweet tea in his hand. Dash had no doubt that this was the beverage that accompanied some sort of sandwich. The blond made sure not to joke too much. He had too much respect for the man.

Firstly, there seemed to be a healthy amount of muscle attached to that frame. Dash got the sinking feeling that Jack Fenton could knock him out with one blow and return to his sandwich. Secondly, Jack Fenton was half responsible for his boyfriend existing, so there was a certain respect afforded in that sense. Jack, would also have been logically responsible for a certain aspect of Danny's physicality. Of course, he did not think of his boyf's dad in such terms. (This isn't a badly scripted porno, after all. I'm sure there's something called 'My Boyfriend's Dad'.) Third, Jack seemed to give his son a greater degree of liberty than Dash had ever known. Danny seemed to move around as he pleased, see who he pleased, and simply do as he wished within reason. Dash's life had been so regimented for so long that he had forgotten what freedom felt like. Jack towed the line of 'father', but was also friendly and mentorish. Dash was jealous in a sense, but was grateful that his boyfriend had such a nice father.

Well, nice to his living half. Danny had it rough. Dash made sure to bear that in mind. Danny was in a position where his whole identity could not be known either. Dash reaffirmed that Danny and he were in the same boat adrift in the ocean. At least they loved each other and did not mind each other's company.

"Come in, Dash." Jack beckoned.

"Thank you, sir." Dash, crossed the threshold into Fentonia. It felt like home, more than his own home. Mister Fenton shut the door behind them.

"I'm glad to see you're sticking at this thing with my boy." Jack said, once again speaking in a suggestive way. Jack either was totally oblivious or totally in tuned. Dash was not completely sure, but tended towards the latter. Something told Dash that if Jack Fenton was smart enough to make all this ghost equipment, a blimp, an RV on treads, and somehow get the very pretty Maddie to marry him. Dash was convinced that Jack knew more than he let on. He was just happy that Jack seemed to like him.

"Well, he's teaching me a lot." Dash answered, playing the game.

"That's good news, Dash." Jack stated, matter of factly, "You might not know this, but the ghost activity has been off the charts. We have not seen this much spectral activity since… Since-" Jack was overcome by a powerful emotion, Dash just did not know which one.

"Since when?" Dash inquired, trying to bring Jack back down to Earth.

"Since 1960!" Jack reacted dramatically. "We had a little spike in '98. But this is nothing like I've seen before. It's like a tsunami. The currents and water went out, went out too much. Now I see a it coming like a wave. It's not here but it may be the largest ghost event we have ever seen.

"Wow, that's a problem."

"Yes, young man." Jack started, "I don't mean to scare you, and would not come on so strong if this was anything but the extraordinary circumstances. I don't know what's going on, or what exactly is to come, but it's going to be big. How do the young people say it these days… It's going to be epic. It's good that you're on our side. Soon, I don't know what is going to happen. I'm glad you're showing the interest and glad that my son is showing you all that he has to offer.

"I am too."

"And, he seems to like you." Jack answered, looking at Dash, as if to gauge his reaction, but Dash could not be sure if it. Dash thought that Jack's genius got him to a place where he could investigate a theory he had.

Dash knew he was caught. There was no way for him to react without cluing Jack in to something.

"I like him," Dash said honestly, but managed quickly to cover up the undertones, "And I like what he's teaching me about this. I'm learning a lot about this extremely complicated science and a lot about myself in the process."

"Good," Jack answered plainly. Again, it was not clear how Jack felt or what he knew. Dash had sufficiently covered his words with a generous dollop of platonism. It would not matter if Jack already knew. Whatever the case, Dash had to keep playing this game. Strangely enough, Dash knew that he would be in the same whirlwind of words if he was dating Jazz. Dash in strange way, though it was nearly a painful experience for him, was appreciative of the equity. He seemed to trust his kids and the threat had already been made. "Well, young man." The older gentleman started again, "I should let you get up to your next lesson. Last time I saw him, he was in his room."

* * *

Dash knocked on Danny's door.

"Come in."

Dash walked in to see Danny on his bed prone, lying belly into mattress. He back was arched a bit so that his head faced forward. He was resting on his elbows and looked to be texting on his phone. Furthermore, Danny's feet were sticking straight up in the air in what Dash regarded as the cutest possible position. He wore his usual t-shirt, but the the bottoms were simply shorts, Casper High gym shorts. The material was sheer and did not stand on its own. It fell where it may, thus leaving nothing to the imagination. The material did little to conceal Danny's proportions. Danny's feet sticking straight up resulted in those shorts riding down, exposing more of Danny's legs than his boyf had seen before.

 _"Wow,"_ Dash thought, _"His body is beautiful."_

Dash was correct. He gave his boyfriend the once over starting from his soles. Danny's feet were shapely and well kept. The soles looked plump in Dash's eyes with a perfectly proportionate arches. Danny had long toes, which suffered from no problems of their own. The nails were clean and clipped, as if by a professional. Danny must have read something particularly pleasurable because Dash watched as his toes curled in delight. They, Danny's feet, were intertwined and not moving to much, save the typical quivers of a living thing. Dash focused next on his ankles, and, again, his skin was like porcelain. He looked next to Danny's legs which surprised him. Dash had thought, back in the bad old days, that Danny Fenton's legs were scrawny.

Again, enlightenment struck him beautifully. Danny's legs were certainly smaller than his, but they fit his frame. The muscles were strong, his calves showing great definition and were just as well developed as the rest of him. Danny's legs looked as if they were never kissed by the sun which made Dash quite happy. It also looked as if Danny had shaved Every inch. Dash knew better, The lack of hair there was a result of Ghost Powers. Therefore, and we must remember that, Danny was supernaturally smooth. There was nothing scrawny about them either. They were muscular and sinewy. Danny looked as if he he ran everywhere, or danced every second of the day. With Danny's Lily white skin, his frame, and his attitude, he lived up to the moniker "GhostTwink".

And Dash was okay with that.

Danny noticed the friendly presence in the room and turned around. That resulted in him basically flipping over. Danny was now supine. He had not meant it (or maybe he had), but he assumed a position that was suggestive. Dash could only stare as Danny spoke to him. Dash closed the door behind him.

"I'm glad you came." Danny said, "Because I swear while we're playing you read my tho-

"I know." Dash interrupted. "It started on Sunday. I went to Kwan's to come out and I was feeling all nervous. I kinda made him nervous with how serious I was about the whole thing. So, while he was going to get me something. He said he needed a joint. Well, at least I though he said it. Then he said that he knew something… and I asked him. Again he told me that he had not said a mumblin' word. I realized right then that I didn't actually see his lips move."

"What did you think?"

"I just though he was fucking with me as revenge for not speaking to him. Then today, I realized what you were thinking because I watched your mouth. Your lips weren't moving but I heard you as clear as I hear you right now. I knew they were thoughts too because you would dare say some of those things out loud." Dash concluded. "I don't know what the hell is going on but Clockwork was right. I think that I am changing too. I felt stronger pushing you against those locker today than I ever felt before."

"You were," Danny confirmed for him, "But, to be honest I thought you were being extra frisky. Your words were at least."

"I was being a little excited, but that…" He trailed off.

"What?"

"That wasn't confirmation enough. I just came over from Kwan's where I proved it once and for all. I asked him to say a number in his head and then I quoted it verbatim. I heard him as if he said it conversationally into my ear. Then I… I asked him to think of a crazy sentence and he did."

"What sentence?" Danny asked, chuckling a bit.

"Dash is hopelessly attracted to Mister Lancer."

 _"So wait,"_ Danny thought, sitting up. _"You can hear me right now?"_

"Yes, very clearly."

"Do you think that you can think back to me?" Danny asked out loud.

 _"Okay,"_ Dash started, focusing on Danny, _"Can you hear me?"_

 _"Oh shit."_ Danny thought. _"We're fucking thinking to each other. I can hear you and you can hear me,"_ Danny gesticulated as if he were still speaking, _"I don't know what to say or ask."_

 _'There's nothing more to say except that we can communicate in a way that others can't."_

 _"You think that you can send like images too instead of words?"_

Dash said. _"Sure let me try."_

The blond forsook any sort of modesty or decorum and went straight to his baser instincts. Dash used that greatest gift that God ever gave the male half of the species: imagination. He pictured what he did way back before this whole thing started. Not only did Dash create a full image in his head, he made a motion picture. Well, it was the type of picture that would play in those seedy theaters in Elmerton. Dash simply hoped that his vision was being displayed to Danny in its full glory. It went like this:

 _Danny was on his knees getting his mouth pounded in Dash's shower. He held Danny's neck in place, leaving little room for the Danny to move. It was not a full on deep-throating, but Danny made the whole thing sloppy. There was no innocence at all, he seemed to be quite an expert. The smaller boy seems to enjoy it. He looked down and saw that Danny was stroking himself with his left and was quite excited to be in his position. Fenton reached down and around with his other hand a started fingering himself, just managing to find that spot that drove him wild._

 _From the pleasure Fenton was giving himself, he started to moan as his head bobbed. Dash liked how the vibration felt on his cock, as Danny moaned harder. Danny had found his rhythm and managed to derive obscene pleasure from his rightful position as a bottom. In essence, Danny was riding, stroking and sucking at the same time. He looked up coquettishly at his boyfriend, whose head was arched back and eyes were shut in ecstasy. Dash peered back down into the eyes of his boyfriend. He did not know that Danny's steely blue eyes would burn through him, but they did. Dash sort of saw that he had given Danny his due throat thrashing._

 _Dash stopped his thrusting and pulled out of his mouth he wasn't finished with him yet. He lifted Danny up with his sheer strength. And now as the both stood. For a moment they just looked into the other's blue eyes. They wanted something more. They needed something more intimate. They started making out, Danny was shorter so Dash bent down a little. Dash could taste himself, but did not mind the flavor. Dash's hand lowered to Danny's asscheeks and settled there, pulling his boyfriend closer. Dash seemed to know just where to touch. Danny felt so taken that he Growing tired of that, Dash grabbed the other boy by the hips, lifted him, spun him, and pinned him on the wall of the shower. Now they were face to face, dripping with sweat and hot water from the shower. Danny's back arched from the pleasant coolness of the wall, pushing his chest into Dash's. They were in more contact than ever at that point. The warmth of the shower water hitting Dash's back made him lean in closer to GhostTwink._

 _Dash went all in with the kisses and fought for dominance. Their tongues were locked in battle. Dash felt Fenton's tongue relenting. Dash started grinding his cock into Danny's. Danny moaned deeper into the kiss when Dash grabbed their cocks and jerked them together. The water did not make for great lube, but Dash loved the feel of friction on his hog. Luckily, so did Danny. The football player's hand could hardly contain the girth of both of them put together, but it worked. They both found the perfect beat as they thrust their hips crotches together. He moved his hand up and teased the heads of their cocks. Instead of stroking the whole length, he focused on the top two inches. He could feel himself getting closer to the edge, but calmed himself, waiting for Danny to get near._

In a way, Dash has been doing this with clothes as a barrier. Now Dash got to live his fantasy with his boyfriend… with his clothes on. It was as if nature was pushing them together, but their civility kept them from doing the deed.

Dash's mind kept the picture going, the tent in his sweats was obvious. He had half a mind to just take it out and jerk off, but he did not need to shock Danny. He spoke aloud, taking care to maintain the image that he created, "Could you see that?"

At the same time, Dash looked down at his boyfriend, still face up in the bed. It was evident that Danny had seen something. Danny's eyes were closed, his mouth was slightly open, and he was biting his bottom lip. A red blush covered his cheeks. The wife-beater that Danny wore was form fitting. Dash could swear that his boyfriend's nipples became taut and poked through a bit. The main attraction was towards the tent that had formed at Danny's middle. The red shorts did nothing to hide what looked to Dash like a mountain. Dash reached back without looking and locked the door to Danny's room. Once they were secured, Dash made the approach to his boyfriend.

Quickly, Dash kicked of his shoes and joined Danny in the bed. He lay on his side next to the twink. Dash used one hand to prop his head up. He used his other hand to proceed to something he had wanted to do. Dash went straight for the base of Danny's cock, now being able to grip it completely in his hands. He grabbed it gently, and could feel the warmth and pulse.

Danny's girth truly surprised him now. He had only gotten to feel things through restrictive denim. Now he was feeling the same. The cloth was muck thinner and did not hinder his access. Wednesday was turning out to be a good day.

Danny opened his eyes and looked down at the display before him. There he was laying in bed with his boyfriend trying to rip his clothes off. If anyone had said this was where he'd be, he would have laughed. Danny's life was falling into place perfectly for the first time. This was what being a teenager must have felt like…

Danny spoke, "Damn, twice in one day?"

"So I take it that you say what I saw what I was broadcasting?"

"You're holding the evidence. Though I think 'narrowcast' is the right word. You don't want to show the whole world that performance." Danny said suppressing a sigh of pleasure, "And if you don't stop toying around with it, you're gonna get your hands covered dirty."

"What… with your cum? You think that a turnoff. I deserve some treat after getting you this close twice in one day. Besides, you know I'd just lick it up." Dash said nonchalantly. "You know I could only dream of this. You writhing and squirming under my touch and now you get to see how gentle I can be."

Danny could only groan his approval at Dash's sweet touch. It made his spine tingle.

Dash continued,staring at the red tent intently, "You know you have a really big cock? I can't let a thing like this go to waste." Dash said.

"Wait." Danny perked up (mentally). Dash let go, not wanting to inadvertently bring forth a fountain of cum. "What are you saying Dash."

"I'm saying… look Danny I might be all macho and whatever, but I mean… It's like… _Think about it like this. You feel good when you finger yourself right?"_ Dash asked.

"Well, yeah…" Danny said out loud.

" _And I think that maybe one day with the right person I might you know… want to see if I like it?"_

Danny's eyes opened wide, "Well Dash, have you ever explored that area of your…"

"I mean… a little bit…"

"And did you like it?"

"Yeah, I liked it. I mean I don't think that I will be taking it every time, but I wanna try it. And I mean, this thing is monstrous. Like seriously…"

'I hadn't thought of that ever…"Danny was surprised, but silently thrilled that Dash waas better coming to terms with his sexuality. "You know that doesn't make you any less of a man."

"I know that." Dash said, sure of himself. "I guess I'm just so comfortable being around you, that I trust you enough to do things with you that I have only dreamt about."

"Yeah?" Danny asked amazed. It was as if Dash was coming out of another closet.

"I mean, there wouldn't be any bottoms if if didn't feel good. Like. really good… So could you promise me that when we get there, we can do that just once…"

"You might like it too much for me to… fuck you, just once." Danny blushed. "I was trying to work up the nerve to ask… if you would let me… I mean… you're a football player and all that stuff is tight. It might look a little silly, though." Danny paused and pictured himself fucking Dash, missionary. _Danny was on top obviously, and Dash's legs were hanging from Danny's shoulder's._

"After reflection, that doesn't look silly." Danny said, "It looks…"

"Sexy." Dash said.

They fell into a comfortable silence. Dash was sure that the whole thing was simply a dream. It was like the story of his life was playing out before him. At least, it was a good story.

Dash thought some more, and wanted to test yet another theory. _"Est-ce que tu me comprends?"_

 _"Oui, vous me parliez en anglais ordinaire."_ (Yes, you spoke to me in plain English.)

Danny thought back. "Wait? That wasn't Eng... Est-ce que je parle français en ce moment?" (Am I speaking French right now?)

Danny covered his mouth. The only French words he had said in the past portained to food: entreé, parfait, à la mode, etc.

"Let's stick to English for right now." Dash said aloud. "Let's try to figure this out."

"Yeah… let's. First things first, let's figure out what is going on with this power you seem to have. Explain to me what you do and how you're able to do it."

"Well," Dash started, "It seems that I can hear what people are thinking if I focus on them. Like I sat in class all day and was not overwhelmed with what the other twenty people in the room. IT also seems that I can broadcast or narrowcast my thoughts to at least you. It also seems that besides thoughts I can send you images and pure information. I also feel stronger than I ever did before, my muscles and other things are bigger. I went on the treadmill in my home gym yesterday and didn't fatigue. Seriously, and I also did my bench presses and reps and it was like nothing to me. I don't know if this is possible, but I might have just given you the French language too. Maybe it's only while you're talking or thinking to me, but you were speaking French like… well I have a bit of a Belgian Walloon accent… and you sounded like an American who speaks it pretty well."

"Wow," Danny remarked, "That sounds like a cool thing to be able to do. It's good that you can control who and what you hear and what you show to people. I think you should come over on Saturday to test some of these superpowers.

"That doesn't cancel our date on Friday, does it?" Dash asked

"No. It doesn't."

"Good, I could give you some French lessons."

"I thought my French sounded absolutely perfect. All I need is a beret, a baguette, and some striped clothes and I'll blend right in. I think with the right accessories I can pass as a Parisian, either that or a terrible poser."

"But Danny," Dash reminded. "I'm your boyfriend, you don't have to use 'vous' to me. It sounded like you were talking to Lancer. Americans do it all of the time. I wonder if you retain that ability if I don't send anything to you. Say something to me in French." Dash cut off the mental connection to Danny

"Okay," Danny replied, "I'll try. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"

" **Oui** ," Dash answered, "But do you know what you just asked me?"

"Not a clue. I heard it in a song once." Danny shrugged.

"You just ask me if I wanted to sleep with you tonight." Dash smiled, "The answer is yes."

"Well, not tonight." Danny answered, "Would be over in a second as excited as I have been multiple times today."

"Well, can I at least whisper to you what I want to do to you."

"Fine," Danny said, "But giving me three boners in one day is enough."

Dash chuckled a bit and leaned into his boyfriend. Choosing Danny's left ear, Dash thought something up, and started to speak. "I think I would.."

 **The rest of this text has been redacted at the request of the United States Government.**

When Dash sat back up, he was blushing, Danny was blushing, and they were both erect. Dash, by being so descriptive, had managed to convince Danny and himself of several things. Danny had been convinced that his body was beautiful and special. Danny had not known that his dick was anything spectacular. Dash managed to convince him. Danny had also been turned on to the idea of being a top. He had been reluctant before, but Dash's admiration of his anatomy made him confident. Dash, though, he was vulgar in his description, managed to make a distinction between fucking and lovemaking. What Dash had just told Danny was the former, but Danny hoped that his first time would be the latter. Dash also managed to prove to himself that he was ready for this relationship to be deeper. He had been talking a good game, but had been harboring doubts. He managed to assuage his worries and become excited at the possibility of loving Danny physically.

Despite his rhetoric, Dash also wanted the first time to be more loving than lustful. They were back on track. They were still nervous to please one another, like teenagers were supposed to be. They were thinking about sex, as teenagers did. They were contemplating love, as was their wont. Unfortunately, they did not see what was developing in the ether. They could not know the magnitude of the events to come. For now, at least, they could think of Wednesday the twentieth as a good day.


	24. Twenty-four

Friday afternoon came around and she was nervous. She was still terribly confused about the whole deal. She simply could not wrap her head around it. It had all been a dream before, a simple, but unlikely hope, but it was happening. Kwan has asked her out. She was in her room looking in the mirror. Her room was clean, beyond clean. It was sanitary and organized to the centimeter. Her hate of loose ends and uncertainty kept the room organized, and smelling fresh. The walls were a soft creamy white that was the result of mixing ten or eleven parts titanium white paint with one part cadmium yellow. It was the color of chantilly lace. It was lined with shelves on one wall. They were filled with books. The windows dominated the far wall, they were covered over by deep red drapes. They were open, and sheer white curtains that let in all the light but obscured the view. A natural, diffused light filtered in.

She chose not to make herself up, she never did it anyway. She hated to feel of makeup and reasoned that if Kwan had asked her out when she had no make up, he wanted to see the same thing on a date. Besides, it was casual. It was just a run to a burger joint. It was a small step in grand scheme of things, but she had made it to the peak of Everest. For once, and probably only this once, she acted like a teenager, giddy that the cutest boy in the school had taken an interest. She was still suspicious, considering the company he kept. Luckily for her, her skills of deduction never fled her. Her sharpness had only that much more power behind it. She could tell, with great and unwavering skill, if she was being played for a dupe.

Sadly, too many girls in the school had been put up as numbers. The way the school talked about things showed the immense pressure to 'hook up' and party. She had resigned herself to the notion that her school was the jungle. She would not resign to the fate of being some football player's sexual conquest. In her eyes Kwan was cute, but not that cute. No one was.

She snapped back to the present and continued to brush her blazing red hair in the mirror. He would be over soon and she wanted to be ready. Kwan has insisted in coming in to meet her father. Kwan had said that he was going to knock on the Fenton Works door, shake Mister Fenton's hand, and tell him plainly that he was there to take his daughter on a date. That gave her reason to think that he was sincere. No teenage boy simply interested in only a booty call would go through all the trouble. He seemed sincere when he walked up to her, he seemed sincere when spoke to her, but…

Trust had never come easy to her. Her life had always been so unpredictable. She could not trust that her parents would be around from day to day. She could not ever be assured of whether her school and town would be safe. She could not even be sure of her safety from day to day, minute to minute.

That is why she analyzed. She could never be sure of anything, so she investigated. Deducing facts kept her sane, and it gave her something to think about. It kept those feelings of insecurity and doubt at bay. Anything she could read, she read. Anything fact that she could know, she retained. The steadiness and unchanging nature of truth was her sense of security. She rightfully coupled her doubt in the events that befell her town with the eccentricity of her parents. Knowledge of things that had no bearing in ghost hunting was her escape. She had been comfortable in that routine.

In comes Kwan, a person she dared not study. She knew that she could never make a fair judgement of him. In that way he was in a category all his own. She could never be fair in judging her family because she knew, liked, and loved them entirely to much. Kwan Tang did not fit that description. There was no relation through blood or through bills (not yet, at least). There was not tangible connection to him, but she could not analyze him.

Well, she could, but, if she were being honest, the analysis would turn into a 'ogle fest'. She was not particularly proud of where her mind would venture when she pondered him. She was not particularly ashamed either, but she knew for certain that she was not being fair. She knew that this was normal attraction, but wondered why she had to be thrown for a loop. She was different from everyone else, or, at least she was seen that way. She was too disinterested in ghosts to be of one accord with her family, but she was too associates with them to be in harmony with her schoolmates.

She had always been so different that he wondered why he, again, the nicest and cutest boy in the school, would take a shine to her. This looped her back to questions about his sincerity.

She was caught in a wheel of doubt, and endeavored to break herself out as she brushed her hair. She was seeking to relax ,something that her analytical, worrisome, ever-watching brain had never done.

 _"God made me a redhead for a reason. It's all what I feel inside."_

Her red hair was a blaze of glory by the time she was done. Luckily for her, there was no wind that day. Her hair was long and voluminous, but not overwhelming, and shone just the right amount of light onto her cheeks. She wore what she normally wore, black and teal. It was all pressed finely, and her body clean and perfumed. It was not quite perfume, but a few drops of essential oil spread strategically about her body, or in some cases, mixed into the lotion. Today she smelled of vanilla. She knew he like this because when the ice cream truck would stop by, he would get a vanilla cone, no sprinkles. He'd sit and enjoy it with the smile of a child. She hoped that he would enjoy her presence in the same way she had imagined. She did not feel like a glamour girl, but she knew that she was in no way unpleasant to look at.

The sun was peeking through her window. Casting a sweet yellow glow that lit her hair and face. She had not known it, but the sunset was going to be a glorious red, only serving to her advantage. She sat in her armchair on the other side and returned to reading a book, something for pleasure. She debated bringing it with her. On the one hand, it would, more like could, be a conversation piece. On the other, he may not be into it, and it may have appeared rude and dismissive. She opted to leave the book. She was enthralled and did not hear any of the goings on downstairs.

* * *

Kwan walked up to the Fenton Works door. He looked for a doorbell, and after finding no evidence, knocked assertively. He had worn his letterman, which covered over a black sweater and cream shirt. His jeans were also black, his shoes were dark gray canvas. He heard a great presence coming to the door and exhaled the breath he had been holding. A man of great proportions opened the door, wearing an orange jumpsuit. Kwan looked the man in his face, and was grateful that he was not in a mood.

"Can I help you," Jack asked.

Kwan stuck out his hand like a professional. "Hello, Mister Fenton. My name is Kwan Tang and I'm here to take Jasmine on a date."

"Jasmine?" Jack furrowed his eyebrow as if he had never heard that word before in his life, but managed to shake the stranger's hand.

"Yes sir, your daughter." Kwan's toes were curling his his toes in nervousness.

"Oh, yeah, that Jasmine." Jack continued, "Come in."

* * *

About twenty minutes later there was a cursory knock on Jasmine's door. It did not sound like any of the knocks of her family. She sat up in her chair, putting her finger in the hood to hold her place in the story.

"Come in." She said plainly.

In walked Kwan. His jacket was unzipped and he wore an expression that looked like nervous relief.

"Oh, I…" She started stammering, "I thought that Dad would… come up and tell me that you were here. He just let you come up?"

"Well, not exactly." Kwan chuckled nervously, "I got here about twenty minutes ago. Your father and I had a chat. You know he gave me the standard threat about messing with you. That was fine, I was expecting that. It's just the other thing…"

"Don't tell me he ghost tested you?" Jazz put the book on the desk and proceeded to bury her face in her hands.

"Well, at least it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would." Kwan shrugged trying to assuage her despair. His skin was still tingling mercilessly.

"I'm so sorry." She was shaking her head still in her hands. She was thoroughly embarrassed, and could feel the warmth of her face radiating into her palms. "I should have warned you. My dad… he's... he's eccentric. He's convinced that… well nevermind."

"It's fine. It's over now and now I get to take you out." He turned around and looked at the bookshelf. "Whoa… this is a killer collection you have here." He walked up to it and looked at the books. She had them organized. Not quite like the Dewey Decimal System, but in an orderly way. He saw that she read political theory above all else, with a sprinkling of fiction mixed throughout, mainly the classics.

"What?" She looked up, "Oh my books. I cannot live without books."

"Thomas Jefferson." Kwan answered instantly.

"Yes." She looked at him with a brand new appreciation. She watched as he looked at the books on the shelf. He seemed to delight in the variety and sheer number of them. She had managed to collect an abridged library of the most important works of Western thought. He was impressed, she was enthused that he was.

"I love books." He turned around grinning from ear to ear.

"Me too." She said, putting a bookmark in her book, preparing to depart with him.

"Somehow," He started, "I think we're going to get along."

* * *

"You have fun kids." Jack yelled from a sedentary position on the couch watching a football game.

"We will," Jazz replied, "But I definitely want to _talk_ to you when I get back."

"Sure thing, pumpkin." He answered generically. Little did he know that she was going to flip out on him. But women were like that, able to keep calm and then lash out when the moment was right.

* * *

She got comfortable in his car. His parents spared no expense. It was a new luxury car, leather seats, satellite radio, everything. She was not swayed by money. She settled into the seat, but made no comment and gave no appearance of caring about the wealth of her surroundings, just about him. He had wanted to be watchful of this and she passed that first and most important test. When your father alone brought home about $800,000 every years (after taxes), he knew a gold digger when he saw one. She was not, and for that, he was grateful.

She looked at the digital radio display and was quite pleased with what he seemed to listen to. It was set to 99.1, Classical FM. It was a her favorite so, she could listen to her Beethoven, Brahms, the operas on Saturday, and choral music on Sunday morning. She hoped that this was genuine and not some ploy.

"I see you like 99.1." She said, breaking what was not yet an awkward silence.

"Yeah, especially on Saturdays. They did a Puccini marathon last weekend, and well, he's my favorite. They played Callas' Tosca. Can't wait for Bachtober next month."

"I can't either. Which recording did they play? Of Tosca, I mean."

"Sixty-five." He answered finally glad that he found a girl interested in the same things as he.

"So, when did you get into classical music?" She asked. "I mean I wouldn't have expected that from you." She blushed furiously at her statement, "I didn't mean it like that. I-"

"It's fine. Most linebackers are not exactly into anything that has to do with a violin. It started when I was grounded once in seventh grade. They took away my tv and computer privileges for two weeks. I don't even remember what I did. So, for the first three days I was bored out of my skull. Then I figured out, they didn't say I that I couldn't listen to the radio. I figured if people back in the old days could be entertained listening to the radio, so could I. So I started at eighty-seven and kept searching around for something to listen to."

"But why classical?" She regained some of her calm.

"I got to 99.1 and heard something that I'd heard in a movie before. I later found out that it was the quieter part March of the Valkyries. But they played that and I listened for hours actually pressing my head to the speaker. It started then, and I've fallen in love with it."

"I'm happy for you."

"How did you?" He asked, gently bringing his car to a stop at a red light, he was in the left lane of a two lane road, very front of the line.

"I did a project on Mozart in the seventh grade." She answered, "I remember listening just to see what it sounded like and when I finally stopped about five hours had passed."

"Nice." He pulled forward at a sensible pace. "So how did you get into Beethov-"

Just then, the car that was in the right lane merges left without signaling, or leaving a comfortable about of room.

"That fucking asshole just cut us off." They both yelled at the same time, with the same tone as Kwan emergency braked. She immediately covered her mouth. She normally was have never sworn out loud, especially on a date. They came to a full stop and for a moment looked into each other's eyes. His green eyes seemed to penetrate her in a way that she never felt or anticipated. She relented and looked away, yielding to him. They felt that the tension had been built and broken. Now, both looking ahead, they felt another emotion.

The two of them started laughing hysterically as he started moving again. They both thought that they would be alright. They were only three blocks away from the burger joint.

* * *

He got a spot in the lot adjoining the restaurant and they walked in. It was familiar to them and to all people in the town. It was done in 1950's style with black and white checkered floor and booths with bright red vinyl seats. It even had a jukebox against one of the walls. It was filled with They made a silent agreement to sit in a booth away from all of the attention, but that had a nice view. The restaurant itself sat across from city hall and the decently sized park that lay in front of it. The park was lined with tall aspens, that obscured most of the old building but did not hide its golden dome, The leaves were starting to yield and display a bit of yellow, though they were nowhere near peak colors. From their vantage out of the window they were looking south at city hall. The sun was shining from the right was casting long shadows as it started to retire for the night.

"That's absolutely beautiful." She said looking out, admiring it, as if Kwan had created it for her.

"It doesn't compare to you." He said, looking at what he thought was the most beautiful thing around.

Her eyes darted to him. She looked into his gaze, and melted into it again. She hated the way that he could unnerve her but she loved being unnerved. It felt like she was taking off some sort of armor. She felt like she could breathe again and be herself. "Thank you." She said, "I appreciate it."

"I mean it." Kwan said, his sincerity shining through his nerves.

"I'll be right with you guys." A waitress wearing the uniform, semi-shouted in their direction.

They ignored her and kept the focus on each other. Something was going on between them. Something big. It was not love, yet, but it was definitely like.

"I'm sorry." She said, "I don't know why I'm blushing so much."

"Blushing is the color of virtue."

She blushed even more furiously. "So you're well-read."

"I try to be. I can escape this town with all its ghost happenings. I just can't stand the whole cycle of chaos that seems to fall on this town. Admittedly, it's been quiet for the last few months. Almost nothing is going on when it comes to that ghost stuff. It makes me a bit nervous." His eyes widened as if he realized something important, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" She asked.

"I'm supposed to be taking you out on a date. I don't think any of the Fenton kids want to spend time talking about ghosts."

The waitress walked up to them and gave them menus. "I'm sorry," she stated, "But there's a party of fifteen over there and we're a bit short staffed right now."

"I mean you can take mine. I already know what I want," Jazz said.

His eyes widened, "Me too actually. Ladies first."

"Thank you. I'll have a bacon cheeseburger medium-well, fries, and a coke please."

"And for you sir?"

"I'll have the same, medium well for me too." Kwan was actually going to order the same thing. He looked over at the table, "I think we'll need some more ketchup."

The waitress went away again.

"Were you really going to get that or did I inspire you?" She posed her question playfully.

"I actually was. I was almost afraid that you would be more conscientious about the whole animal welfare thing that-"

"If we weren't meant to eat meat, it wouldn't taste so good." She said, shrugging. Well, something had to come from Jack, and that piece of him made a grand appearance.

"Agreed." He States emphatically, "And coke?"

"It's my favorite, but," she answered, "If I buy some, Dad drinks it all before I get to it. I know it's awful, but it tastes so good."

"I love it."

"Who doesn't?" She asked. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." He leaned back a bit, getting comfortable. His nerves were calm again.

"I don't know how to ask it. I guess… I mean… you're really good looking… like really really..." She sputtered for a moment, blushing again. She was blushing so much that she thought she'd wake up with bruises. She composed herself. "I guess I mean…why me of all of the girls in the school?

"I don't want all of the girls in the school. I don't want any of them except one." He answered, starting to blush himself. "And you're the only one who seemed to show a genuine interest."

"How do you I was interested?"

"Well, first of all. We have talked about actual, meaningful things. It hasn't been some cage, phony politeness between us. I felt like I could talk to you. You're someone I can sit and have a mature conversation with and I can't say any girl in Casper quite compares to your intellect. Then, the icing on the cake is that you're beautiful. Pretty is easy, it's superficial. Beauty, actual refined beauty is rare, rarer than anything. So I get a smart girl, in the most wonderful package."

"I-" She was at a loss for the first time in a very long time. "Woo." She muttered to herself, she was hot, in a good way.

"Too strong?" He asked.

"No," she answered reaching out and grabbing both his hands across the table, "Just right."

"Thanks." He was filled with more confidence than he had ever known. What Dash had been talking about when it came to Danny was now obvious to him.

"I just can't believe that you weren't swimming in women, with a body like that and such a way with words."

"I guess I hide my light under a bushel."

"But you're so bright. It would be an absolute waste." She countered. "Please stop doing that. Let the world get that much brighter."

"The locker rooms of America are not quite the beacon of intellect. Only this body is made better from there. It'd take me a year to get them to pronounce Euripides correctly, let alone spell it."

"Well, be bright when you're with me." She insisted. "Unless I want physicality, but don't hold your breath, Mr Tang."

"Deal." Kwan asked, "Though, that's not quite fair."

"Not fair?" She inquired, intrigued.

"No, it isn't." He responded, "I wasn't going to bring this up." A mischievous smile covered his face, "You've been viewing my physicality all this time. You've been watching me lap that track for the better part of two years."

"I deny it." She replied, crossing her arms underneath her chest, also playfully. "I absolutely deny it."

"Under oath?" He asked.

"I'd plead the fifth." She answered.

"That is suspicious in itself."

"Alright, fine." She lifted her hands up as if surrendering. "I confess, but it's not like you'll be able to punish me."

"Punish you? No. But I want, or rather demand some restitution."

"And what would that be?" She asked lowering her hands

"I want to watch you jog."

"Wh-"

"Come jogging with me."

"What?"

"I have gym class with you. I've seen her fit you are so I know you must."

"I do jog around the neighborhood." She admitted, "You know, to get some exercise and escape for a bit."

"You wouldn't mind escaping with me, would you?" He asked, trying to really make absolutely sure he had an in.

"No, I wouldn't mind that at all." She was demure in her response.

A silence fell over them that neither felt the need to fill. Time stood still for them in a good way. They could admire each other. Finally, and regretfully, she spoke.

"Why did it take you so long?" She needed to know.

"I…" He stammered, "Do you want the truth?" He asked himself more her. "At first, because I really liked you, I thought that you were… I thought I was just imagining it. I really thought that my mind and heart were playing tricks on me. I resigned myself to thinking that it was just my imagination. I was comfortable with that for a while. I'm not going to lie; I had a few dates. On all of them I didn't get past the drive to wherever before she, or I, or the both of us knew it wasn't going to work. They either thought I was 'too nice'."

He did the air quotes.

"I don't know what that means exactly. Or, she would want to… Look, I'm not into the whole hookup thing." He said bluntly.

"Good, neither am I." She agreed.

"So, that has been it for me. It was a lot of striking out. So, I finally worked up the nerve to go and ask you. And…"

"Here we are." She finished it. "But there's something missing there. You went from thinking it's your imagination to asking and finding out it was real, just like that. Something must have given you some hope."

"You really are as smart as I thought, but I'm afraid the source of my hope is confidential."

"You won't tell me?" She pouted playfully yet semi-convincingly.

His response: "I can't. I plead the fifth."

"I-" Jazz started.

The waitress came back with the drinks on a tray. She placed them on the table and removed a couple of straws from the pocket of her little apron. "Here are your drinks. They're frying up some fresh French fries for you. You're the first batch in the new oil, and the bacon's on the grill right now.

"Sweet."

"Oh and before I forget..." The waitress reached over to another table and commandeered its ketchup bottle. "You said you needed ketchup." She walked away again.

"I cannot tell you where I got the info." He continued to practice his obscurity.

"Fine. I won't pry. Just thank him." She replied.

"How do you know it's a 'him'? He asked trying to throw her off completely.

"Because I don't have any female friends who know and would tell, and you just admitted yourself that most of the conversations you had with the girls at our school were brief. I don't think that would be the thing they would convey." She finished her deduction.

He was just staring at her as if she walked on water. "God, you're smart."

"Thank you." She responded. "You have really big muscles." She got self-conscious and tried to look for the best thing to say. "H- How much do you work out?"

"Well, I work out a little bit every day. But I have a real workout every other day. I wanted just to be fit when I grew up so I worked for it."

"Mmmm...Yes you did." She moaned out loud. She forgot her manners and let her earnest wish to feel those muscles pull through and escape. "I'm sorry."

"Oh I don't mind." He smiled with put upon innocence, "I know I'm in if you're all gaga."

"I am _not gaga._ I'm just. I've just never really done this before, you know with a guy actually worth talking to."

"So, I'm your first?" He chuckled.

"Oh hardy har har. Don't press your luck." She answered.

"That's the only way to win."

"What about 'slow and steady' winning?" She asked.

"I don't view this as a race." He answered. "Look, you're smart, good looking and I'm a little intimidated."

"You're intimidated by me?" She was floored, "You're a popular guy in the school, no, in the town, I'm just a little mousy girl in the corner."

"If you just think of yourself as a mousy girl, you're mistaken. There's no girl in that place who has anything on you. I knew the beauty and now I'm getting to know the wit."

"You flatter me." She answered.

"I tell the truth. And besides, if this doesn't work out, I will have gotten to read some good books from your library anyway."

"So are you in it for my looks or my books?" She asked playfully.

"I'm in it for you." He answered.

She was yelling at herself in her head, _"How does he always know what to say?!"_ She answered aloud, "

The waitress emerged from the kitchen carrying their food.

"Finally," they both huffed. They chuckled again that they shared the same thought.

* * *

The drive back to Fenton Works was quite a bit calmer. He parked out in front of the place. He turned the key in the ignition, turning the car off. The red sunset presented itself gloriously behind them, shining through the rear window. She was positively radiant in his eyes.

"No, you don't have to…" She put it together what he was doing.

"A gentleman should walk you up the steps." He implored.

"No," She grabbed his hands and put it on his lap, "It's not you, it's me. I'm not going to be very ladylike when I get inside because I'm about to tell my dad off."

"Wh-" He started.

"He ghost tested you."

"It really didn't hur-" He tried to lie. He started unfastening his seatbelt.

"Next time." She answered. "And I promise that next time will be really soon."

"Fine."

"Good." She answered.

"Do I get a kiss?" He asked.

Her wit was sharp as ever. "You can kiss my hand." She offered her right hand up to him. The ruby read light made her all the more beautiful. It was not a joke to him so his lifted it gently and kissed it. She was in that moment royalty to him and he couldn't figure out why she was so intoxicating to him.

"Good night, Kwan." She bid him adieu and opened the door.

He watched her walk up the steps and get into the house. The sun seemed to fall below the horizon as she shut the door. He crossed his arms on the steering wheel and buried his head in them.

"I can't believe you just did that, Kwan. You just went on a date with her."

He collected himself and drove off, readying to help his friend with his plan.

* * *

Jazz shut the door behind her and immediately fell back against it. She couldn't believe that a dream came true. She actually pinched herself and knew she was in reality. That which seemed impossible happened. She lived through it, and it was bound to happen again, countless times.

She stood there a moment and her attention shifted to the sound of Danny bounding down the stairs. Her eyes widened when she saw him. He was dolled up, actually handsome to look at. She could scarcely think of what he was up to, she was so consumed with herself. She snapped back to reality when her brother was trying to get out of the door himself.

"Um…" Danny tried to get her attention, but her eyes were still closed. She didn't hear him, so he spoke up louder. "Jazz what's gotten into you?"

"He has the intellect of Diogenes, the face of Adonis, the body of Heracles, it's just so perfect." She mumbled her eyes still closed. "You couldn't possibly understand these very adult emotions."

"Well, could you feel it someplace else, you're blocking the door." He didn't have time to take offense to that last remark or ask who Diogenes was.

"Fine," She answered removing herself from the doorway. That's when she looked at him, made a mental note and confirmed it. She whispered to him, "Looks like you do know _exactly_ what I mean. Just make sure they treat you right or big sister will skin them alive."

"Ok thanks." He took half a step forward, and realized just what she had said "Wait, what do you mean by 'them'?"

"Nothing, nothing, just a slip of the tongue," she said semi-convincingly.

"That's fine, but I do need to get going. I promise we'll talk about it later. And somehow I actually think that if you two fought, you'd win. I'll tell you about it all later, okay?"

"Okay." She relented. "One thing out of line from him and I can't be held responsible for what I'd do."

He looked into her eyes and saw the steely determination of their father. Whenever she got this look, he made sure to clear the area.

"Now excuse me, little brother, I have to go and kill Dad?"

"Why?"

"He ghost tested Kwan," said she gritting her teeth.

Danny bristled at that."I like my ears working so I'm going to leave. The fact that Kwan didn't run screaming is a good sign. It means he's actually into you, and not just trying to get into your pants. That said, you need to let Dad know that that's not okay. Like I said, I value my sense of hearing, so I'm going to go."

"Good call." She answered. " I'll give you a minute lead.

* * *

CHAPTER 24: Part Two

* * *

"Is that him?" Dash whispered to himself sitting in the black sedan. "Oh my God it is him… I knew I told him to look sexy, but fuck… That should be illegal." Danny was wearing a t-shirt, but this time it was black and fit closer to his frame. The jeans were blue, and fit much the same way as the pants. The hoodie he draped over his shoulders was dark green, Dash's favorite shade.

A new confidence graced his walk. It was as if he stride as he made his way to Dash. He knew that he could not and would not be stopped this time. No ghosts or old friends would be interrupting him. This was his night, his date. He had been wanting this in the abstract for years, anticipating it with clarity for weeks now. He knew that it would get a bit chilly for his outfit in the evening, but he was half ghost, he had not felt cold in since before the accident.

Dash was sitting in his car wanting to escape the town. He decided not to wear his letterman, as there was no need to be recognized outside of town. In that sense, he was heading into enemy territory. He wore a black windbreaker that covered a dark blue waffle knit sweater. He wore his regular relaxed fit blue jeans and black converse shoes. The clothes, the comfort only made him want to leave even more.

Amity Park was closing in on him. It could feel claustrophobic. His skin had been crawling for the last few days, he could not know if it was nerves or something else. That was, he supposed, the down side to being in this relationship. Dash had been confident before, or at least, confident of the front he put forth. He could be 'straight' during the day, and be himself at night. This was the way he had been for years. Danny was making it harder for him to be 'straight'. This by no means suggested that Dash would be an activist, or 'swishing' around. His personality was the same, but this was just a piece of it was hidden from everyone. Danny knew it well, very well. Kwan had known about it in a conjectural way. That was it.

He was unsatisfied with such a narrow understanding of it, but he knew that it could not be known about just yet. At least being with Danny made him feel like everything was going to be okay. He knew deep down that things were not going to be alright. He knew that he and Danny were not a normal couple, notwithstanding their gayness, nor were they in normal times, or had typical circumstances. Nothing going on in Amity was a bad sign; seeing no ghosts was bad news. He could not find the usual pulse that made things right in Amity.

Resolved, he was going to train himself in ghost-everything. At least, he would get some more time with Danny, and he imagined that they would get sweaty with each other. He stopped himself in the abstract before his dick caught on.

Danny entered the car, and taking quick glance around, leaned over to Dash and kissed him on the cheek. This was met with an immediate blush from the blond.

"Hi," Danny said, putting his seatbelt on, "I've been looking forward to this."

"Me too," Dash answered putting the sedan in drive. "Not being able to talk to you during the week was hellish. Football practice is just spent trying to distract myself but you are there in my mind, always.

"I know, but we have each other now," Danny replied, placing a hand over Dash's whole he was still putting the car in gear, "And no one can take that away."

"No they can't. But, I know a way to get to be with you. I need to practice ghost stuff. If there's really this thing building in the background, I think you'll need all the help you can get. Besides, it's probably gotten you in such good shape and I haven't had the same time to exercise the way I want to." Dash started towards the highway to get out of Amity.

"Well, you're not getting flabby." Danny answered. "I pay close attention to your body." That was a proud admission on Danny's part, "And if anything you're muscles have gotten bigger and tighter. I kinda have a photographic memory so... I know."

"You know, I think you're right. Come to think about it, at practice yesterday, I did set a new record with my laps, and those tackling dummies were like pushing pillows around."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I was a full fifteen seconds faster than my record." His expression changed radically too, "You don't think there's anything to that, do you?"

"I do, actually. Dash, let's face facts. You're able to read minds and send thoughts to them, you were even able to teach me French, at least temporarily. So, taking the facts, I think that you getting more powerful physically can't just be thought of as nothing. I mean, think about it. A full fifteen seconds faster is not just breaking a record. You blew it out of the water."

"So?" The blonde one asked as he started to pull off.

"What I'm saying is- You're gonna have to learn how to temper, I mean, restrain your powers. You'll have to learn how to slow yourself down."

"You've been restraining yourself for a long time, haven't you?" Dash realizing another dimension of his life.

"Well, yeah. In a couple of ways. One, when I first got these ghost powers, I couldn't hold myself together, literally. My pants kept falling off-"

"Is that what that was?" Said the quarterback, "I always wondered about that."

"Well, and I was still coming to terms with my… uh… attraction to boys, well a certain boy. My ghost powers didn't help, introducing new, complex aspects to my life. It didn't help that I was a horny fuck, still am."

Dash gulped, actually feeling a bit of heat under the cover.

Danny continued, "The guy who made me horny insisted on touching me, grabbing me, every day. SO, restraint is something I'm used to. Hell, I'm restraining myself right now."

"How?"

"Who's saying that I don't want to kiss you right now?"

"You can't kiss me on the lips right now," Dash laughed, "I'm driving."

"Who said anything about 'on the lips'? I was thinking lower." The black-haired one bit his lower lip, though his boyfriend did not see it.

"Wait, what?" Dash didn't get it. Then it dawned on him. "You wouldn't…" A new excitement entered his voice, carnal excitement, "Would you?"

"I certainly would, especially on the empty roads of Amity County at night coupled with the fact that I can go invisible, but _you_ can still see me. That's a ways down the road mind you. Our first time is going to be romantic, but I do have a plan. I just need to extract some information from you." Danny answered it all, but only opened up another volley of questions in Dash's head.

"What do you mean 'extract information'? That sounds like some S&M stuff to me." Dash said, almost testing the water, listening to the tone of his boyf's reaction. Dash wasn't into that 'pain' thing, but the whole teasing part intrigued him. That is to say whips and ropes were out of the question for now. (Is someone going to write a '50 Shades of Phantom' story? On second thought, please don't.)

The passenger replied, "All I meant is that I have to find out what you like so I can make it perfect for you."

"What? I mean, why are you so focused on me?"

"Making you happy makes me happy. Making you horny makes me horny." Danny broadcasted the last thought straight to Dash, who was, of course, focused on him, _"Making you cum makes me cum."_

"I feel the same way, Danny. I really do, so I think we can make this mutual. I can find out what you like too and we can… sort of... construct something that powerfully great for both of us."

"Well, yeah." Danny answered, getting a gift he had not anticipated. "How about we try to exchange what we like, what our limits are, et cetera."

"It's a deal." Dash answered.

"First things first. I don't want it to be in some seedy hotel, or in a car someplace. I want it to be someplace intimate and special for the both of us… And before you even ask, no the locker room doesn't count."

Dash smiled sheepishly, "You know me too well, but I can give on that. I would love it, if it could be in your room, or my room. Again, a place that we both cherish. I uh think, I would like it in my room. My parents will go out of town soon. I'm sure of it, and I can really give you a proper tour of my place. It may not have a ghost lab, but you'd like it."

"Would I?" Asked Fenton.

"I mean, I could show you the home gym, and we could exercise together. I can show you the sauna."

"Sauna?" Danny asked, "I didn't know you had a sauna."

"It's actually inside the gym.. A few years ago my parents spent the money to get me an exercise room for my birthday. They knew I would use it, and I still do. They built it in the basement. My dad has his 'man cave' in the attic. Mom decorated the rest. They knew they would be out of town a lot and that I needed to work out for football. They wanted me to have a place."

"But why not just a gym membership?"

"They said that they didn't want me out at all hours without them knowing where I was. So they got me a gym at home. They had originally said that the sauna was for everyone, but they never use it."

"Why didn't you show it to me?" Danny asked. "I could use a steam room to relax."

"I don't think it would have wise for you to be walking around with just a towel or how I usually use the steam room."

"How's that?"

"If I'm home alone, I draw all the curtains closed, lower and close the blackout blinds. If no one is looking, why cover up?" Dash asked.

"You're probably the most unself-conscious person I've ever met.""

"Oh come on, you don't go around naked when no one is home?"

"In my room, yes, but I put something on to you know…" The smaller one paused and thought about it, "You know what? You're absolutely right. There is no need to wear clothes in an empty house."

"Except for when you're cooking, and to go check the mail." Dash warned.

"Wouldn't it get too cold for that?" Danny asked, "I mean in the summertime when the a/c is blasting."

"You actually save some energy, no need to have the place blasting. I love doing it in the winter though, having the place nice and toasty."

"Wait, so, have you, you know, in the past, sat on the furniture in your living room, while you were naked?" Danny asked. "I mean, I don't care, there's nothing that you can do that I wouldn't like, but-"

"No, I'll put on some underwear to sit on the furniture. I mean I don't just walk around naked all the time, but you will catch me in just some boxer briefs or whatever." Dash answered. "It's the craziest thing that a month ago, I could only dream about doing anything with you, and now- now we're sat here talking about sitting at home naked. Do you realize how cool that is? Well not cool, but-"

Danny answered, "It is cool. More than anything, I really think this means it's all real?"

"Hmm?" The driver grunted in confused curiosity.

"What I mean is that I wake up in the morning and still can't believe this is real. I'm going out with the hottest guy in the school, the hottest guy in town, and he's actually interested in me. He actually like me back. He's actually trying to get to know me. He talks to me everyday and can't stand to be away from me. I mean, I was already hoping against hope that you were gay or bi-"

"I don't understand the attraction to women." Dash shrugged.

"I don't either." Danny agreed, "But just this whole thing is unlikely has hell, but it's happening. And we're on our way to our first date. And my sister has threatened to beat you like a drum."

"Does she know?"

"That I'm gay? Probably, she's probably thinking I'm bi, but I'll tell her later. About you? I don't think she would guess in a million years. She said she would kick your ass if you hit me."

"H-h-hit you?" Dash looked severely uncomfortable, and slumped into his seat, his toes curling, his hands clenching "I would never, ever, ever do that again…"

"I know you wouldn't. You've been the gentlest person I've ever met."

"And the roughest… I still feel guilty about it."

"Look. Dash, I forgive you. And if you love me…"

"You know how much…"

"Then forgive yourself." Danny answered.

"Thanks." Dash added, "For getting me."

"You're welcome."

Silence, the type that only two lovers could sustain, fell over them as the left Amity County. The football player broke the silence.

"So…"

"So… what?

"I don't know. I kinda want to talk sex, but then I want to be romantic for our first date." Dash chuckled nervously.

"Let's talk sex please," Danny smiled knowingly. "First of all, I need to know. Would I be your first."

"I talk a big game," Dash answered, "But you would definitely be my first. You… uh...You were my first kiss." Dash admitted that.

"You mean, you had never done that before?" Danny was as astonished as astonished could be.

"No." Dash answered sheepishly.

"Well, you were perfect. You were a natural and I hope I'm going to be treated to more of that tonight. And it would be my first time too when we get to that point."

"I'm a good kisser, huh?" Dash asked, more wind in his sails.

"Yes, so good that I thought, you had had a lot of practice. Am I a good kisser?"

"I thought that you had been the one to do it before," Dash answered.

"No." Danny said aloud, "Why would you think that."

"I mean… look at you…" Dash thought it would have been obvious, "I mean you're so _cute._ I thought you'd have boys all over you."

"Probably," Danny admitted, "But they may have been intimidated by you. Not so much afraid that you were my boyfriend but afraid to fight you. If I were someone else's boyfriend, and if he were worth dating, he'd have to stand up to Dash Baxter. That's not an easy thing. Luckily enough for both of us, I only had for on you."

"You're right." Dash replied, "So weirdly enough, while I was trying my damnedest to prove I was straight, I was only claiming a boy as my property. I don't think of you that way. I only mean that's the way the average person in the school could see it."

"That sounds accurate." Danny admitted. "You know, I have to thank the Box Ghost the next time I see him."

"Why?" Dash asked chuckling.

"Without him, I wouldn't have ended up in that locker room with you jerking off. I wouldn't have ended up seeing the character of the porn you were watching. I wouldn't have gotten the boy I wanted pouring out his guts to me on the top of that hill that overlooks our town. I just want to know how you figured out that the two Dannys were the same person." Danny put his query as a statement.

"Well, I had an intimate knowledge of your body from our daily 'encounters'. In Danny Fenton, I was saw a sureness that befitted a man. In Phantom I saw that same confidence. Then I put it together that all the features are the same, and then the voice hit me. I was sure of all of it, and you confessed so readily that-"

"I was ready to get rid of some secrets. I must be the only person I know for whom being gay isn't their biggest secret. You were the only one who could handle both. It felt good to transform back to me in front of you. And you can see me when I'm invisible to the world. There must be something to that."

"I know there is. And I want to know what it is. I want us to explore it and really know what's to all this supernatural stuff that's going on between us. I like, naturally, but all these things are just making it more complicated."

"Give me time. Tomorrow, we'll test and see." Danny answered. "The house'll be empty tomorrow, so we can test you. The same way my father ghost tested Kwan."

"What?" Dash asked.

"You heard me," Danny confirmed, "Just be happy that I lied and got you out of it."

"Thanks."

"Besides, that means I get to see you naked." Danny grinned.

"Are you telling the truth?" Dash asked, "Do I have to get naked?"

"Well," Danny sighed, knowing he was caught. "No, but it would have been nice."

"It would have been exploitation…" Dash added, "But you're the only person who can use me. Besides, you don't have to trick me. Just say the word and I'll the clothes will be off."

"Why do you have to be so lewd?" Danny joked, and put on a convincing Southern drawl "This is no way to treat a la-"

"You ain't a lady. I don't date ladies. I won't be making love to any ladies either. Men are powerful and that's what I want at all times. A woman just seems kinda useless just lying there. A man, even has a bottom still has something to play with, you know. Something for me to play with, or be commanded not to play with. Somehow, I don't think you're a weakling in bed. I mean, you can walk through walls, disappear, and fly. I know there's some aggression in there." Dash smirked, "Deep down, I know you want to show me how aggressive you can be. You want to get back at me."

"I… uh…" Danny was embarrassed. Dash had him down to a t. "Yeah, I want to try a lot of things on you."

"That's what I thought." He changed the topic completely. "He we are."

Danny looked and they were pulling into a parking lot of a cinema. "How did we get here so fast?" He looked down at the car radio's clock and realized that a full forty-five minutes had passed. "Wow, I just can't get bored with you around me."

"Of course not. What do you want to see?" Dash said asked.

* * *

They picked a horror film. It was Dash's favorite genre and it gave Danny an opportunity to snuggle up to him. When they exited the car, Dash did something he had only dream about. He draped his right arm around Danny's shoulders and held him close. It made him feel free. Danny couldn't help but blush at the affectionate display.

"I… uh… hope you don't mind." Dash stammered a bit, overcome by the fact that he could hold his boyfriend.

Danny only snuggled deeper into the embrace, pressing his flesh against a wall of muscle. It felt so right to him. "I hope you don't mind this."

Dash's face got just as warm. And he figured to himself, _"This must be what love feels like."_

They walked up to the box office of what was really an old fashioned movie theater. Dash reached into his left pocket, not letting Danny go. He spoke to the female clerk, an older, heavyset gal, about in her late fifties, whose dyed red hair fooled nobody. She squinted at the display in front of her. He lips, which were, in actuality, thin lines, reddened with ruby red lipstick, curled into a firm frown. Dash didn't listen to his better judgement and focused on her to read her thoughts.

 _"Give 'em an inch and these fags take a mile. We let them out of the closet and now look at them parading around."_ She tried her best to muster up a professional tone. "How can I help you?" She asked.

Dash did what, for years would be his best piece of acting. He raised his voice a few octaves, and got somehow managed to adopt an effeminate demeanor. His voice was saccharine, lispy, and womanish. It was convincing enough for himself and for the old lady. "Two tickets for _Unusual Sightings,_ please _._ I think we'll _snuggle._ "

Danny looked up at his boyfriend in utter confusion and amazement. He did not move, knowing that Dash would explain all. Danny contented himself to watch the gayest display he had ever seen. The old woman, having confirmed her bias, punched the correct info into the ancient computer in there with her. Her grimace grew deeper as she typed those few keystrokes to have the tickets printed. Dash knew what he was going to say next, but waited for her to finish and give her undivided attention to the couple again.

"That'll be sixteen dollars and fifty cents."

Dash reached into his wallet, pulled out a crisp twenty, and slid it through the slot. "You know what they say about giving. Once we were given an inch, we took a whole damn mile. Didn't we, baby?"

Her face dropped making her wrinkles even uglier. She thought that it was just a coincidence until Dash nailed her. "The second I was out of the closet, I just had to get myself a cute boy, and parade him around for _everyone_ to see." The italicized word came out fiercely but quietly like a drone attack.

Dash kept a straight face but was delighted and quite amused internally as he watched the old bag's face crumple into absolute and inconsolable shock. Danny was now at a loss for words. He did not put it together what happened, but he could tell he had done something sneaky to make this woman.

"I...uh…" The woman stammered, playing nervously with the top button of her (too tight) cream blouse. "Here are your tickets." She slid them through, but there was something missing.

"Where's my change?" Dash reverted instantly to his natural demeanor, his voice dropping, hips straightening. "You owe me three dollars and fifty cents."

"Oh, oh... yes, sir." She said fumbling, now totally lost by Dash's conversion to passing for straight. She reached into the register and grabbed a five. She was freaking out too much to take the time to reach for three singles and two quarters "I… I'm out of singles. H-here."

"Thanks."

"Enjoy the film… sirs." She squeaked out. She grabbed

They went into the theater and stopped in the lobby. The film didn't start for another fifteen minutes, so they went to get some snacks. Popcorn was the furthest thing from Danny's mind.

"So are you going to tell me what the hel-"

 _"I read her mind and this what she thought,"_ Dash proceeded to broadcast her thoughts.

"Dash, as funny as that was, we can't afford that. We don't want to be figured out." Danny said aloud back to him.

"Fine." Dash acknowledged, seeing his point. "I won't do that again, but she just thought it was coincidence."

"That said," Danny continued, "That was pretty damn funny. I didn't know you had it in you to act like that. Seriously that's some repressed truth," Danny chuckled.

"Don't hold your breath to see that again." Dash chided playfully.

"No, that was once in a lifetime." Danny remarked, knowing it was the truth.

* * *

They were midway through the film. They had sat in the back high up. The film they were seeing had been out for a while, so the room was practically empty. Dash had chosen this theater for multiple reasons. Firstly, it was out of Amity. Second, the seats were well upholstered and felt more like sofas than seats. Third, and most importantly, the armrests lifted completely up allowing people to lean into each other or recline. Dash took a corner seat and sat in it slightly sideways. He knew that if his boyfriend wanted to cuddle, he could do so readily. Danny, once he took notice and, having made the decision to truly be close with him, decided to lean into him the way he been craving for years.

Dash felt like he was on Cloud 9 with Danny head resting on his heart. They both watched the film and Danny would flinch and lean into Dash anytime something scary happened. Danny had seen many gory and evil things in his life (or death). He had stayed stoic for Sam and Tucker, but now he felt safe to be vulnerable. Dash was a savior to him. Danny was equally revered and reviled about their area, but Dash was not. Dash was appreciated for his football prowess. Danny got to appreciate him for his kindness, his loving personality, his gentle touch, and now his manly scent. Dash was still the one who freed him from the ghost secret, and the one who freed him to feel, really feel, for the first time in his life.

He had loved the idea of Dash before, but sitting there in the cinema, the abstract was not enough. Danny was feeling something rise in him, a visceral need to be in Dash's presence. It was almost slavish. He wanted nothing more but to love and be loved by the blond. He yearned to please Dash, and to be pleased by him. This was now a mission. Pleasure did not simply mean sex, it meant intimacy. Danny was going to be close to his man and nothing, humans, ghosts, or circumstances were going to stop him.

* * *

10 PM

They decided to get something to eat in the town too. There were a bunch of diners that looked welcoming, and Danny picked the one where the tables had clothes that hit the floor. Dash parked on the street and fed the meter enough to cover them for two hours. They walked in and realized that they were the only ones in there. There was a youngish waitress was sitting watching an old cathode ray tube tv. It was some show about a bunch of women competing to win the exclusive right to date a bachelor.

"Anywhere you want gents," She said. "The placemat is your menu."

The two made a beeline for a hid away corner of the restaurant. They were quite happy that she was distracted by her reality show. It gave them a chance to talk, and gave Danny a chance to put a piece of his plan into action. They looked down at the placemats and saw a lot to choose from.

She appeared once the show went to commercial. "Sorry gents, it's my show."

"It's fine with us."

"Good, I don't want to interrupt your date." She winked at them, seeing the romantic closeness between them. She knew that it wasn't friendship or brotherhood, "You snagged yourself a cute one, blondie."

"I sure did." Dash affirmed.

"Thanks." Danny said, blushing under the praise.

"First date?" She asked.

"Yeah." Dash responded, "What do you recommend for us, this menu is all so big."

"You two don't look like the type to split a bowl of spaghetti and end up sharing a noodle. That's probably too schmaltzy for you."

"Yes," they both said simultaneously.

She glanced over to the tv, she still had time, "Well, Donnie's seasoned waffle fries are the best in the whole country. Y'all should split that. He makes a great burger too, and the chicken fingers are to die for."

"I think I'll go for that. Chicken fingers sounds perfect for me," Dash said.

"Me too," Danny said.

"Good," She said, writing it down on her pad, "And drinks?"

"Sprite." They both said together.

"Okay, double-size seasoned fries, two orders of chicken fingers, two sprites."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good," she rushed off, rang the bell for the cook, give him the order, went to the soda fountain and prepared their drinks, delivered them and put them on the table. Swiftly, gracefully, she pulled two straws out from her apron and handed them out. She returned to her seat at the bar area just in time for the show to come back on. The boys looked on, highly impressed by her speed.

"I think that officially makes her a pro." Dash remarked. "I'm glad you picked this place. Nice and discreet, and very welcoming to us. And apparently, I snagged a cute one."

Danny chuckled as he went about shuffling his feet under the table. It was noticeable to Dash, but the long tablecloth concealed it to the rest of the world.

"What are you doing?" Dash asked whispering, looking over to the woman who was clearly enthralled with her television show.

"Nothing," Danny said smiling

Just then Dash felt a bit of pressure on his feet. Danny raised an eyebrow looking as if he were perplexed himself. Dash realized right then that Danny had done something extraordinary. Most people kept their shoes on when they played footsie, and most people didn't raise their feet up to the other's lap. Dash was in trouble now. The tent in his pants grew faster than he could have anticipated or hoped to dissipate under Danny's 'encouragement'.

"What are you doing?" Dash reiterated, this time his breaths sharp with arousal and anxiety.

"Well, I have a confession to make." Danny said, "I knew that you were checking me out when you came over on Wednesday, and you focused down there for quite a bit. Is this something you're into, Dash?" Danny wasted no time, He could feel the warmth through Dash's jeans, and his socks.

Dash spoke in fits and starts, "Do we have to do this right now?"

"It's a simple yes or no."

"You know the answer already," Dash spat out between gritted teeth.

"I don't," Danny protesting with put upon innocence.

"Yes."

"Thank you." Danny then withdrew his foot.

"Ugggh" Dash moaned almost breathlessly.

"Revenge for Wednesday," Danny answered. He whispered the next part. It made Dash's spine tingle in excitement, "Don't ever think you can ever have the upper hand when it comes to that. _I seduce you_." Danny commanded. "Understood?"

Dash nodded vigorously. Danny seemed to understand what he meant about being powerful. The football star had known power and still knew the unwieldy responsibility of might. He was curious to see what being led was like.

She returned just then holding all of the food they ordered. She noticed Dash's exasperated expression, the sweat that had formed on his brow, and that his hair was starting to fall out of place. She looked at Danny and saw how innocent he appeared. "Looks like you're giving him quite a nice workout," She said to Danny.

"I really don't know what I said-" Danny feigned innocence. "Honest."

She smiled knowingly at Danny, "Well, whatever it is, you might want to stop. Blondie looks like he's going to pass out."

"No, I'm fine." Dash answered, completely lying. "Totally fine."

She put the food down. And placed it appropriately in front of them. She smiled at Dash, feeling bad for his suffering. She tried to find some words that would console him, knowing she had brought men to this state of fluster dozens of times in the past.

"He's just testing you, sweetie." She offered.

"He sure is." Dash said regaining himself.

She grinned once more and walked away from them. Her show was about to conclude, and it was time to vote somebody off.

Dash had taken enough time to recover and was about to exact his revenge. He had an advantage over Danny. Fenton had forgotten, and Dash was keen to capitalize. Dash never thought much of his intellectual capabilities, but he knew one thing was certain. His style in exacting vengeance was going to be the end of the competition. If Fenton wanted to go to war, Dash would retaliate. Conventional Warfare has been been useless in deterring or parrying Danny's attacks. These were the times that tried his soul. Classical tactics only seemed to create further attacks on Dash's person and more theft of his platonic peace. His boyf had provoked him one too many times. Dash would have been content to keep the exchange civil and clean, but Danny deprived the both of them with that option. Appeasement had proved to be folly. Now Dash was going for it, psychological warfare.

For Dash, this was the nuclear option.

Dash spoke, staring into his boyfriend's eyes "Danny?"

"Yes?" Danny asked looking intently at the food, glancing up at Dash, and then looking down again.

"Look at me."

Danny looked up and met his boyfriend's piercing gaze. He swallowed what was in his mouth and gulped, knowing that he probably overplayed his hand. Sex, of course, was a physical exchange of feeling, but its base was emotional. Danny could mess with Dash's physicality as much as any other person, but Dash had a way of getting into his head that no one else possessed. It was not mind-control, though Danny could not say certainly that Dash's ability would not turn into it. In that moment, Danny contemplated apologizing but could not back down.

 _"How bad could this possibly be?"_ Danny thought, forgetting that Dash could hear it.

 _"Oh really?"_ Dash thought, not yet transmitting to Danny. Dash starting putting together what amounted to a production in his head. He would have to make something up better than he had presented on Wednesday.

He thought up something good as a basis, but let his heart continue in whichever way it chose:

 _Dash was sitting in the men's locker room a school. It was afterhours, about seven o'clock, so the place was empty. Dash was using this time and space to relax, destress, and, most of all, seek release. He did something different this time. It was Dash's fantasy so the school was empty and there was no chance of him being caught. Dash usually left his clothes on on lowered his pants just enough to give him access. His jacket was stowed in his locker, but the rest of his clothes were strewn around the room in what chalked up to carnal excitement. Dash was sitting on one of those painted wooden benches, completely naked. He had his phone in front of him and was using it to watch some porn. Beside that, Dash had some lube at the ready. Dash didn't care about his volume in this vast empty space, so he moaned freely. He felt a pair of eyes staring at him and was only encouraged. The gaze was familiar and friendly, so he continued. His boyfriend was watching him. When Dash looked around the room he saw those familiar eyes, staring at him, drinking in the sight of his body._

 _Danny made himself known, and was in the same state as Dash. He did not dare hide his nakedness or arousal. Instead, Danny took this chance to float over to his lover, almost dancing in the air. When they were close, Dash pulled him into a close embrace. Flesh rubbed flesh as Dash leaned back slightly during their kiss as if to give his boyfriend quarter. Danny continued his descent into Dash's frame, rubbing intentionally, but not unceremoniously into his muscle. Danny's arms wrapped naturally around Dash's neck as if that was their rightful place. Dash's arms found themselves around the other's hips. Soon, Dash's hands found a spot, one cupping each of Danny's cheeks. Notwithstanding its location, Dash thought this scene more romantic than explicit, more sensual than pornographic._

 _They broke for air, Danny panting into Dash's chest, while Dash simply stared up at the ceiling. Once he recovered, Dash lifted Danny's chin to look him in the eye._

 _"I love you," Dash said, accepting that his attraction to men was not simply physical, but emotional._

 _"I love you too," Danny said before briefly rising to kiss his boyfriend once more. This time it was a delicate peck. They were both enthusiastic to make love in this environment which proved new for one and familiar for the other. Danny's kiss was warm and passionate but short. Danny changed his position, arching his back. His hands were lowered down Dash's back. Dash arched forward in reaction as Danny created a trail of kisses down Dash's front. Danny linger on each of his nipples for great pauses. Then, moving on, he felt a new excitement growing in him, and in his anatomy. Danny had continued his descent into the most carnal part of physicality. Dash held him closer as Danny's tongue made quick work of Dash's abs._

 _Danny had finally made it to what he had been wanting the whole time. Danny repositioned them, turning Dash to that he straddled the narrow bench, with one leg dangling off each side. Danny leaned him back so that Dash lay flat on the surface. The blond felt no discomfort in leaning on this surface. Danny was almost prone on the bench. Dash had his eyes closed as felt warm hands grip the base of his cock._

 _"Watch me." Danny continued his ministrations, with gentle kisses._

 _Dash did as he was told and looked down. Danny looked his boyfriend in the eyes as his performance turned from delicate to involved. Danny found his rhythm and bobbed his head up and down, managing to keep his gaze squarely on his boyfriend. Danny kept a firm grip of the base of Dash's cock with his left hand to make the job of servicing his boyfriend more manageable. Danny let go and dared to take more of Dash's cock, testing his limits. Fortunately, Danny had mastered it long ago and managed to bury his face, his nose particularly, into Dash's pubes to take in his smell. Danny looked up and saw the strained expression on Dash's face. He could feel Dash's attempts to stifle himself, so Danny decided to stop with the torture. Besides, Dash cumming now had was of little benefit to him._

 _"I want to ride you." Danny said._

 _They spun again so that Dash was sitting on the bench properly. Dash took a moment to apply a generous amount of lube to himself. Danny straddled him, facing him. Danny lowered himself onto Dash's manhood. Dash's attention remained on the strain that painted his face at first. Two things arose from Dash. First, a vague guilt in giving him such intimate discomfort. Dash knew that it was temporary sensation, and Danny would start to feel what looked like immense pleasure pretty shortly thereafter. Second, and this is important to remember, Dash felt a great pride welling up inside of him. The pride arose from the fact that he could actually bag this specimen himself. The other part of this spring from the irrefutable fact that Danny was having trouble, albeit short lived, handling his proportions._

 _Danny, after a bit of wriggling, managed to sit on Dah's rod squarely. Dash managed to contain himself as he watched his boyfriend's face turn to one of satisfaction, then gratification. This expression was then matched by action as Danny, without thinking, started to ride as an expert would, timing himself to grind in as he got to Dash's base. Dash matched his pace with purposeful thrusts designed to hit Danny perfect. This was slow at first, romantic more than hardcore. Dash made good use of his hands. He wrapped his left arm around Danny's back, just above his butt. Dash's other hand was busy stroking Danny, milking some clear liquid from him. Dash knew that he was good because Danny closed his eyes, barely able to handle the sight that gave him so much pleasure. Dash moved his hand off of Danny's back and to around his neck._

 _Dash was determined to call this love making not sex. Dash kept his other hand focused on Danny's self. That's when the blond pulled his lover into a deep kiss…_

* * *

That's where Dash stopped beaming his thoughts.

Danny's face had taken on a tinge that Dash had never seen before. Danny was past arousal, but ready, willing, and able to do the things Dash imagined for them. Danny didn't feel like waiting, but he insisted to himself that he would. He wanted to first time to be more romantic and feel so right that it hurt. And, most of all, he wanted the first time to be last a long time. At that moment, one wrong move and Danny would have exploded. Danny could not so much as look at Dash as he continued eating. The other boy at the table was smiling. His face said victory. His were too tight. He too was too close for comfort, so he looked down at his hair had fallen out of place again, so he brushed it back with his hand.

Dash took quick glances at his boyfriend, feeling the heat that rose from them. What was funny was that this was supposed to be a date. It was supposed to be a chaste expression in mutual interest. It was supposed to be romantic, not perverse. It was the opposite of what they would have wanted, but that's not what happened.

And they wouldn't change a thing about it.

* * *

Dash left her a fifteen dollar tip. Her service would have been considered lackluster in any other circumstance, but the time spent unbothered played well for them. They loved the place and promised to eat there again. The tension between them was terribly perceptible.

The immediate erections had died, but there were some seemi tents in their pants. They spoke softly as they headed back into Amity County.

"I had fun tonight, Dash." Danny said softly.

"Me too." Dash responded.

"I just hope I did okay…" Danny trailed off.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm kinda embarrassed about it, but this is my first date ever." Danny admitted.

"I give you an 'A'," Dash praised, "I mean, if we had only been dating a week, your little game in there would have been too much, but you made it perfectly frisky. Danny, I used to think that I wanted you as an easy prize, but the pursuit is thrilling for me."

"And me too," Danny added, "I love having a man wanting me so badly. But…"

Dash heard his hesitation, "But, what?"

"It's pressure to make it perfect when the time comes."

"Somehow, you frisky boy, I think you will rise to the occasion. And being a top isn't easy either." The blond argued, "Do you know how hard it is _not_ to cum? I mean don't worry. I know how to do it, but it's a skill."

"It's hard to accommodate a man inside you too, especially if he's as well endowed as I have seen. Think about it, not only do I have to accommodate your size but your thrusts too. And trust me Dash, if you know what to do and how to hit it, it's hard for a bottom not to cum too. Luckily for you, I have _trained_ myself."

"Listen to us, two dudes talking about how hard sex is going to be." Dash chuckled, "These are first world problems, I'd say."

They both laughed and fell into a sweet silence for enough time for them to get back in Amity Park.

Danny broke the silence, "You'll be over tomorrow, right?"

"Of course. About 2-ish?" Dash said as he brought the car to a stop.

"That sounds fine to me." Danny said. He paused as he realized that Dash was not moving, "Why aren't we moving?"

"This is your house."

Danny looked up and saw the Fenton Works sign. He frowned a bit, knowing that he had to leave Dash and be away from him.

"Well, umm… Thanks for the good time. Next time, it'll be on me." Danny reached over and kissed him on the cheek. "And I'll see you tomorrow at 2."

Danny exited the car and walked up the Fenton Works steps. Dash watched him open the door and let himself in. Dash continued to look at the brownstone, looking up to Danny's room. He saw the light come on in Danny's room and was satisfied to leave. He had gotten a special dispensation on his curfew and still had about a half hour. He knew that there was nothing to be gained by pining away. Dash drove off, satisfied in his performance on the date and grieving slightly because it was over. There would be more times, but he did not know when they would come.

 _"Sooner rather than later,"_ the blond thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Danny went up to his room and locked the door behind him, delighted to have gotten an 'A' for his performance. He would have been more inclined to think about the date, but something more pressing entered his head, heart, and pants. Danny was unashamed as he kicked off his shoes and unfastened his belt. He closed his eyes as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled the t-shirt over his head, tossing them across the room. Then he ditched the pants. He felt no shame in rubbing his nipples with one hand and his bulge through the back boxer briefs with the other. He got onto his bed, and pulled the underwear off (well, off enough, they were around his ankles.) Danny then turned on the images and sounds Dash sent him and stroked it.

He came twice before he want to sleep that night.


	25. Twenty-five

They were down in the Fenton Works laboratory. Danny had done as promised and had taken out all of the equipment necessary for Dash's tests. It felt strange to Dash to see all the equipment he had been wondering about actually operating. As for him, things seemed to be normal. Being tested by his half-ghost boyfriend was normal. It beat the hell out of having to listen to some girl jabber on about some inane thing. Dash viewed the tests that were about to start as a physical, like the many he had taken in his life. He found himself in a similar state of dress or undress, as it were. His shirt was neatly folded on a workbench on the other side of the room.

"Take your shoes and pants off," Danny told him, looking official in a lab coat. Danny's clothes underneath the lab coat were not so official, but that was of little consequence.

He, the blond one, followed directions and stripped down to just his underwear. Dash could not be sure of this was a legitimate exercise in discovering the truth or an unashamed attempt to get him naked. Dash did not mind either way. It was not as if Danny was a stranger.

What was different this time was the lack of any sort of examination table. In fact, Dash was standing, nearly naked but unashamed, in the middle of the space. Danny had turned up the heat to make him more comfortable. The warmth had produced a slight glisten on Dash's torso and legs, which Danny appreciated. And, without doubt, the room's temperature made Dash's package a bit more pliable, not needing to shrink at all. There was little left to Danny's imagination, and, for that, Danny was grateful. He ripped his eyes away from Dash's cock and spoke to him. He wanted to put it simply what he would be trying to figure out.

Danny knew that Dash's body was still completely alive, but that he had some powers left only for the dead. Dash had achieved immortality, a ghost sense, a new warmth that kept him alive. Dash had also acquired increased speed, skill, and precision. Dash's hair grew more luxurious, his eyes glowed bluer, and his skin presented clearer. Danny could find no flaw in Dash's looks before, but now he looked as a ideal, having moved from cute, to handsome, to truly beautiful to behold. Danny knew he was not imagining these things, there had been murmurs in the school about Dash looking better. Danny would have loved to take vain credit for it, but this transformation was beyond even his power.

The powers hitherto described were nothing as compared to Dash's power to perceive and be perceived. Dash could hear anyone's thoughts if he put his mind to it. He had a universal key to humanity, a pathway into the one thing that men could call their own, their conscience. Danny thought that power was awesome. By awesome, he meant heavy, consequential, and unwieldy. Listening must have been easier because he could choose who and when. Danny did not envy him in this respect.

Even these powers were nothing to Danny when companies armed to the two that thrilled him. Danny still could not think of a reason why Dash would be able to see him when he was invisible or touch him while he was intangible. This had not practical purpose, but seemed only to be a manifestation of something deeper. Danny wished he could find a word or sound to describe it perfectly.

Taking all of these things into account, Danny thought it unlikely that Dash would be limited to these abilities. He did not kid himself. He knew that the powers that had thus been presented were not trivial or insignificant. On the contrary, it was the natural prowess and sturdy mindset that Dash carried that made Danny believe that they were scratching the surface. If anyone in the world was qualified to speak on powers, it was Danny.

The ghost boy felt as if he had been growing stronger. This put a few thoughts between his ears. First, the increase in power, whether welcome or onerous, could not be stopped. He did not know yet if he welcomed the newfound strength as much as his blond counterpart did. Second, as an intelligent person, Danny could see the relationship in their powers. Both of them grew more skilled everyday. Once Dash's powers were introduced into the equation, Danny's way of being as a human and as a 'superhuman' were elevated. His life grew easier, though not simpler, not by degrees, or even exponentially, but geometrically. Third, he still was not a fatalist, but he could not separate the whole medieval prophecy thing from what was going on now. A ghost, a human keeper who fit all the prerequisites, the joining of two bodies and two hearts into one, and relative ghost silence all fit was was prophesied centuries ago. The word Danny had so many times dismissed as archaic nonsense were ringing truer with every passing day.

Danny believed that he still had choice and control over his life, but all signs and circumstances were pointing towards something incredible coming to pass. He could only prepare the best way he could, by continuing his training. He would have to keep his mind and body in top shape to handle the events that may arise. That said, those were inauspicious times. Nothing, except for his boyfriend's love made anything work any better for him. Knowing how his life seemed to be patterned, nothing would happen before the school year ended and probably nothing before the end of next summer. That meant that Danny, and therefore Dash, had just about a year to put together something to combat whatever was coming. It was being asked of Danny to defend against a threat he could not define.

That's a hard thing to do, but he, no, they had to do it.

"Tell me." Danny started, "Have you been feeling any differently lately?

"No." Dash answered, "I feel normal, healthy, never better. I haven't been using these powers that have come up, you know, except for last night. I had to put that cow in her place, but, other than that, I haven't been going around reading minds or looking into the sun."

"Dash," Danny started, "I'm just not convinced that your powers end there. I mean, that thing calls you the 'King of the Earth', and I can't see that what you have being the whole picture."

"No?" Dash asked.

"Again, 'King of the Earth', I don't know if this means you can manipulate things or people to do what you want."

"I don't want to manipulate anything or anyone." Dash said, feeling put off by the verb

"But that's what a king does. He exerts control over his dominion, and yours is said to be the Earth. So, maybe you can command much more than you give yourself credit for. You might be in charge of things that I can hardly imagine."

"Like what?" Dash asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the weather? Or being able to manipulate materials supernaturally. You could have super strength. You might be able to fly."

"Me? Fly?" Dash scoffed at the idea. "I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you."

"I don't require oxygen." Danny gently reminded him, joking.

"Oh haha." He laughed sardonically.

"Seriously, think about flying." Danny said. "But wait a second."

Danny went over to one of the table and grabbed what looked like a blood pressure cuff. The cuff was attached, by means of a few wires, to a Cold War-esque machine that had gauges, dials, lights and buttons on the front. On the back there was what could only be described as a polygraph lookalike. It had the roll of paper and needles to deposit ink. The top gauge was resembled a speedometer and was marked from zero to fifty.

The dial read zero as Danny affixed the cuff to Dash's arm.

"Now try it." Danny said turning the machine on.

Dash closed his eyes and concentrated, not on flying himself, but on Danny flying. Dash went back into his memory and remembered seeing Phantom fly while he was on patrol, float while he fought, and soar to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Dash managed to detach himself from the gnawing concerns of the world and almost meditate on his boyf. This would have been obsessive to anyone else, but the fact remains that they had overshadowed and known each other more than they knew themselves.

Dash's eyes remained shut, and he felt nothing.

Then his boyfriend gasped.

He open his eyes.

He was floating. It was only a few inches above the ground, but he was levitating. Humans were not supposed to be able to do it, but he was.

"D- D- Danny," Dash whispered breathlessly, impressed with his new abilities. "I- I'm flying."

"I know." Danny said, breathless, marveling. He turned his head towards the meter. The needle in the 'speedometer' pointed to 50. Danny looked over at the polygraph paper. It had spiked and leveled out at the top of the chart. Danny looked at Dash who was now starting to play with his ability to float. He did is so effortlessly that he made Danny jealous. Danny had struggled for weeks to float without motion sickness, let alone control himself. Dash was doing it so easily.

"Dating you has many perks, Fenton." Dash remarked as he moonwalked perfectly in thin air.

"It's not fair." Danny fake pouted. "I was a wreck for months when I got my powers, and look at you. You're floating and dancing in the air like there's nothing to it."

"Well, sorry I guess…" Dash tried to assuage a pang if guilt he felt. He felt bad flaunting what had been a burden to Danny. "I shouldn't be gloating like this." Dash descended carefully, yet forcefully, still in control.

Now Danny felt horrible for guilting him. "No, enjoy it. I didn't mean to get all heavy. Still am jealous."

"I have a theory I guess as to why you struggled." Dash comforted by wrapping his arms around the one with the smaller frame.

"And what's that?"

"You said that you got these powers freshman year, well, like- or like the summer before?"

"The August before 9th grade, right."

"Well, uh Danny… I'm not trying to be mean, but you were a weakling back then… and I kinda think these powers get stronger as your body gets stronger. You have more control over your body if your muscles are bigger, maybe it's the same with… powers." Dash theorized, and delighted in his notion.

Danny did too. "I did get more muscly when I trained more. My physical training was important to helping me improve. I think your right. And in eighth grade I was a little out of shape."

"You were getting a little pudge there, Danny. Those cheeks were getting kinda slappable."

"Which ones?" The black-haired one asked.

"Oh stop," Dash insisted. "I wasn't crushing on you then."

"Really?" Danny put his hand on his hips.

Blondie could not resist the attraction he felt towards a sassy Danny, so he admitted, "Okay, maybe a little…"

"And you did smack them." Danny said flippantly, while removing the cuff from Dash's arms.

"Which ones?" Dash found himself asking.

"The cheeks I sit on." Danny answer not batting an eye.

"Did I?" Dash said, half amused half mortified.

"Yes. You smacked them and said something like 'Fatass Fenton' or some other lame nickname you devised."

"Sounds like me." Dash answered, "Did it hurt?"

"No, of course not. You never hurt me, not even once." Danny answered.

"Well that's good." Dash answered, "I'm sor-"

"Nope, don't even. I jacked off thinking about it later that night."

"What?" The blond always got flustered to think of his boyf's excitement. "You what?"

"You heard me correctly." Danny said as if nothing graphic was involved. "Now, before one of us passes out from arousal, lets see if you have all the powers I have. Danny went invisible, clothing and all. This resulted in Dash looking like he was standing in an empty room alone to you and me, the average observer. Dash could still see Danny, of course, but in a phantasmagoric, shadowy way. Danny's frame was preserved but his color looked washed out. "Do you think you can do this?"

"I'll try." Dash did not know what to think to turn himself invisible, so he cleared his mind. This time he kept his eyes opened. Then, after some more head-clearing, he raised his hand to his face and could see through it. Dash's jaw dropped, realizing that more and more, simply being the town's (closeted) football star and all around jock-extraordinaire had died. These powers put his ability to be normal to rest for eternity. Dash finally understood what death could mean, but, at least, he approached a new, scary life. Out went one reality, in came a new, heavy, and unpredictable way to live. He understood Danny now. He could wrap his head around mind-reading, super strength, and flight, but the ability to disappear from all mortal eyes was too much. To disappear from people was to die, yet, notwithstanding his corporeal nature, he was unable to stop living. Immortality seemed more like death than life. Deathlessness was so unappealing, but Dash could be happy he could share it with someone.

"So, is that how I look when you see me invisible?" Danny asked. "All ghosty like that."

"Yes." Dash walked to the mirror and saw nothing looking back. He figured that he might as well do the third thing and make it official. He reached through the mirror and his hand phased past the solid material. Along with invisibility came intangibility and imperceptibility. He stopped his phasing through the solid objects.

Dash shuddered to think about what he was putting on now. The sudden jerk turned into a fearful trembling, as if someone was draining him of all of his life force. His face looked as if he had just killed someone, and, at the same time, somebody killed him. It was shock, doubt, and shame (for having dreamt about having powers before).

Danny saw the look on Dash's face and recognized it as one that had been glued to his face. Danny saw the same agony he had when he died. Dash may have been spared the physical anguish, but his mental affliction was al the same. Dash had just given up life how he knew it, and he felt a sense of grief about it. Life, with all its hardships and imperfections, had been ripped away from him. Though he still had a pulse and still breathed, Dash's existence could not be called life. It could not be called death. So, with a heavy, though unwaveringly committed heart, he accepted his new station in existence.

Danny could only hug him as the blond stood silently. After a moment, they came back into tangible being together.

"I'm just glad you're here and that you absolutely understand." Dash mustered, his voice cracking a bit as they parted.

"And you understand me too."

"So, what now?" Dash asked, "Where do we go from here. I just wanted a boyfriend, and now I've got the whole world on my shoulders. I don't blame you, I just wonder why us? Why are we so special. I mean we're not particularly gifted or better qualified to handle this stuff than anyone. There's billions of people on Earth. Why-"

"Dash," the ghost boy started, "I learned to stop asking those questions long ago. I learned not to get mad about the things I cannot change and accept all of these things. Dash, I can't give any answers that'll come close to making you feel better about things, but I can say this. For whatever reason, we have been given these awesome powers. Fate has decided that these responsibilities would fall on us and us alone. I don't know what is coming, but I do know that we can't waste a second feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to get on with training for whatever all of these things mean."

"You're right. And hey, I have you by my side, and that's enough." Dash said.

"Stay tonight," Danny said, out of the blue "I don't want you going home and being alone. I remember how lonely I felt when I was left here alone after the accident."

"But your family…"

"Doesn't have a clue." Danny finished.

"I-"

"Please." Danny asked, "I don't want you be alone, and I couldn't, in good conscious let you sleep alone tonight with this on your mind."

"Fine," Dash said, secretly grateful for the offer, "I um… will tell my folks I'm staying at Kwan's. And-" He trailed off.

"What?"

"Thanks." Dash said.

"For what?"

"Thanks for caring." Dash clarified.

* * *

Sam and Tucker had cooled off and decided to meet one another. They were not getting back together, but they decided to have a powwow to discuss what they would do for Danny and Dash. Admitting it was not easy, but Dash was important to this whole equation. You know, the equation that they had so terribly miscalculated. They were in her room, after recovering from what had been the worst experience of her young life. She sat on a bed on he on her swivel chair by the desk.

Tucker started it plainly, "We fucked up."

"I know," she replied lying down, looking at her ceiling. "Big time."

"I don't know how to fix it." Tucker said.

"We have to apologize to him, and we have to show him that he can trust us." She said.

"But how?" Tucker posed, "We threatened to out him on both counts. We need to make this right. Do you think trying to befriend him again would work?"

"The way to Danny is through his heart." She answered. "He always operated with passion rather than reason."

"Through his heart, huh?" Tucker considered, "That means through Dash."

"Bingo."  
"But how? He hates us, especially after the way we treated his boyfriend. He would quicker snap my neck then talk to me." He assessed the situation perfectly.

"He has to be a big softy inside to have Danny that into him like that. We just have to find a way to let him know that we would never hurt Danny… again." She said.

"Maybe through Jazz then." The geek tried.

"She doesn't know he's a ghost and she probably doesn't know that he's gay or dating Dash. So she's not the way either. Apologizing to his face might work, but we can't do it at school, but catching him anyplace else would be impossible to do considering we're not talking."

"Well, we could call him." He mused, "We have to make the first move. It was completely our fault."

"But how?"

* * *

Danny found Jack sitting at the kitchen table. Surprising Jack was not eating. He was reading the mail.

"Dad." Danny called from behind. There was no response. Danny was puzzled and walked up to his father who looked deep in thought. He tapped his father on the shoulder.

Jack turned instantly and was a microsecond from pouncing in his son. He relaxed when he saw his boy and proceeded to remove some earplugs. That explained why he didn't hear the younger Fenton, but the question rose in Danny's mind as to why he was wearing them.

"Dannyboy, what can I do for you?" The older gentleman asked.

"It's nothing but I was just wondering if Dash could stay the night."

"Is it a school night?" Jack asked.

"No, today's Saturday." Danny replied.

"Fine with me. I'll leave some money for a pizza." Jack said. "I have to go get the girls back."

"What?"

"Well, Jazz's boyfriend… I did a 'protocol fifteen' on him. He didn't seem to mind very much and he came back clean. I thought was the end of it. Kuei his name was… right?"

"Kwan."

"That's right." He ended.

"That still doesn't explain where they are, Dad, or why you're going to find them."

"Well, when Jazzycats got home she was angry with me." Jack's voice still showed his absolute confusion, "She yelled at me about how she'll never forgive me for ghost testing him. Yelling and crying and I don't know what I did. I tried to explain to her that I was only doing it because I want to keep her safe from ghosts. I had to make sure that he wasn't one himself or that the poor boy wasn't possessed."

"And why's Mom with her?" Danny asked.

"When Maddie heard all the commotion, she came and asked what was going on. By then, your sister was in full crying hysterics mode. So, your mother said that she was going to take her to a spa for the weekend to make up for it."

"I don't think going after them will be a good idea." Danny added.

"Well I wasn't going to stay for too long. They probably wouldn't let me stay. Then, I'm going to go and look for Inviso-Bill."

"Oh, is that right?" Danny asked, faking concern.

"Yes, Danny boy, look at this letter I got yesterday." Jack handed over the letter that looked very official. Danny's hand trembled when he saw the seal on the paper. Danny asked out loud, "United States Department of Defense?"

"Inviso-Bill." Jack answered, "They want him to be captured, intact and sent to the Pentagon to be questioned."

Danny read along as his father spoke, "The readings of spectral energy, as you have no doubt seen, has been higher than ever before. They think in the Pentagon that it has something to do with ghost activity been strange as of late. Every so often they have these scares where they think that the activity needs to be monitored. What's strange about this time is that they want one ghost specifically."

"Five hundred thousand dollars to find him?" Danny kept reading, feeling a growing sense of dread. Nothing could be or would be normal for him, and he knew that there was no use crying over spilt milk. He just could not stand that Dash could no longer be extricated from the situation. Dash was in this for eternity and no one could do anything about it.

"Yes, son, half a million bucks to capture him. I could put you and Jazz through college. So, Danny, I was in it before because of what I believed, but now there's incentive."

"So, what now?" Danny asked. He could hear his heart beating in his ears.

"I'm going to catch him if it's the last thing I do." Jack answered.

Danny looked at his father and saw the same determination that guided Danny's pursuit of justice. He saw that drive in his father to hunt him and turn him over to be destroyed. Every vigilant, Danny made sure to take a mental photograph of the letter before him. Danny used his superb memory and took an image just like a camera. Once it was seared into his brain, he gave the paper back to his father."

"Good luck," The ghost boy could barely get the words out, so his voice squeaked.

Jack was too preoccupied to notice the tone, and went back to the other mail. Danny had not seen the other envelopes.

It read "HM Government" and was from the Home Office. Her Majesty's Government was offering £1,000,000 to do the same. Jack did not flinch for a moment. He knew that the U.K. was offering more money, but that he would be working for the USA. He was very patriotic after all. Danny had left the room by the time he opened a third letter, this time from the Chinese government.

* * *

He went back downstairs and told the news to Dash by sharing the mental image with him. Dash had dressed himself by then and lost the color in his face the same way Danny had.

"They're after us." Dash said exasperated and concerned, "They're actually fucking after us."

"No, Dash, they're after me. You're fine."

"No, if they're after you, they'll have to go through me." Dash said. "No one hires a bounty hunter to go after my boyfriend. No, I'm not fine till this is over."

"But it's not just one." Danny deduced, "If they're alerting my father, they're alerting all the other truly legitimate ghost hunters in America."

"And how many is that?" Dash asked, "Hundreds of millions of people, how many would be after that reward."

"There's a few thousand. My Dad is the best one in the country, I mean others look to him for advice. I don't think there are thousands of those letters going out, but maybe the top ten or five who have gotten the letter."

"Well, what's that mean for us?" Dash asked.

"We keep our heads down and hope that this pattern of no ghost attacks continues. What we need to do in the meantime is train. Every second you're not at football practice, you need to be here with me learning how to use all of this equipment."

"About that…" Dash started.

"What?"

"I was thinking about giving it up so that I-"

"No, Dash. First, you love it almost as much as you love me. You love being out there; I can tell by how you talk about it that football is your passion."

"You're my passion." Dash responded.

Danny continued but did note Dash's comment, "Second, it would draw too much attention to have you quit the thing that everyone knows you love. Think of how the teachers, coaches and all the other kids in school would be looking into you, trying to figure out what's the matter with you. Hell, half the town would be furious or frustrated with you up and leaving like that."

"I guess you're right." Dash said, feeling relief that his boyfriend's circumstances did not require as much sacrifice as they seemed. He was willing to make these sacrifices, but his willingness didn't make it easy to do.

"Third, I still want to watch you play and kick Elmerton's ass. Fourth, I want you to have some time away from me. What I mean is that I don't want you to have me dragging around you. Have fun, and do things for yourself. A good relationship needs space too, gaps where the missing the other person, and excitement to see them could go. Football is just your chance to do that and be with your other friends."

"Thanks, you're real considerate." Dash said comforted that his boyfriend was decent. "But I would be leaving you all alone. Your friends kinda ditched you, and I wouldn't feel right leaving you all alone. And, i mean, it's hard to make new friends with you having to hide half your life away."

"Look, I've been dead before, loneliness doesn't scare me. And I won't be lonely knowing that you'll always come back. Go and have fun, just no girls." Danny chuckled.

"Girls are boring," Dash said, "Told you that already. Now a cute boy in a dress is a different story…" Dash said to gauge his boy's reaction. Then, he reconsidered and didn't like the idea of a boy sashaying and swishing around like a 'bitch'. He wanted to fuck a man, so that first thing was completely out of the question. "Actually, on second thought, scratch that thing about the dress; I wouldn't want that. Just seduce me in a jockstrap and socks and I'm a happy camper."

"Noted." Danny actually committed that to memory.

"So, I can play my football?" Dash asked like a little kid, possessing it as his own with 'my'.

"Of course you can, and every time you win, you can fuck me." Danny smiled cheekily/

"And if I lose?" Dash asked.

"Well, I would have to make you feel better somehow. Probably just a blowjob then."

"Really?" Dash asked.

"No." Danny answered quickly.

"Wh-"

"That's what you get for telling me to wear a dress." Danny chuckled. "I'd look like an idiot."

Dash drew a mental picture and started to laugh hysterically. "Yes, you would." Danny joined in as Dash shared the image of Danny dressed like a hooker in Elmerton, red shiny pleather dress that left nothing to the imagination, a ratty red wig that had seen better days, holey thigh high fishnets, and stained black stilettos. The cigarette in Danny's ruby red lips and overzealous application of rouge, mascara, teal eyeshadow, and eyeliner made the image complete.

Their laughter died and Danny grew serious.

"So, Dash, are you sure you want to do all of this. If you walk away now, I don't blame you. You can walk away, save yourself, and I will leave you alone and thank you for the lovely memories. Are you sure you want to stay with me?" Danny basked away and went back to the equipment table. He stood behind it and leaned on it, steeling himself for Dash to come to his senses and run away from this shit.

Dash gave an impassioned speech to answer this question, "Yes. You have taught me too much about myself and the world. I've never been this happy in my life. Since September 5th, I've had my first kiss, my first date, a cutie for a boyfriend, a sexy cat and mouse game, multiple orgasms, love for you, and for myself for the first time since I realized that I am gay. I actually look in the mirror now and I actually don't feel ashamed in my skin or in my preference. You've done all of this for me and today is only the 23rd. I can't put into words what you mean to me, how you make me feel, how special you are, or how fucking lucky I am to have you. I'm not giving this up and you can't convince me to, either. You've taught me a lot, and now it's my turn to help you. Let me help you, Danny."

"Okay, so you want me to teach you, huh?" Danny asked, grabbing a Fenton Thermos from the table.

"Yes siree." Dash answered enthusiastically.

"Catch!" Danny threw it and Dash caught it like a football.

Dash looked at the thing and made sure to examine it carefully. Dash did not realize it, but his innocence made him smile in eagerness to learn something new.

"Lesson One." Danny said with a smile. Things looked bleak, but Dash's smile was like a light in the darkness. Danny felt hope, real hope, for the first time in his life.


	26. Twenty-six

It was the middle of October, Saturday the 14th to be precise. There was no Indian summer this year, so their northern latitude gave them their first frost about a week before. It was still getting into the fifties during the day, which, of course were shortening before their eyes. No one minded though, as this was the cycle to which they were accustomed.

Dash, who found himself in the middle of it all, kept a jolly disposition. They had managed to find a balance between his football practice, games, homework, and ghost training. They left the "power training" for now, agreeing that it would be more prudent for him to learn the tools before he learned the application. Besides, it wasn't like his powers were withering away. In fact, let it be known that Dash had no problems controlling his powers at all. He accessed them at will and used them often when he was home alone for trivial things. If he didn't feel like getting up and walking to the bathroom, he could phase through the wall instead.

Then, the fourteenth of October, it was night and the stars were out. It was cold and they went to do something that was as close to a date as they could stand. Invisibly, intangibly, they went about doing a cosmic dance. They swiped in three dimensions twisting around in equal arcs. They went off of town for it usually, picking a place where they could fly like kites among the stars. Each twinkling little light shone through them to you and me. But to them, there was no focus but the other, and they floated, then fluttered, then flew past each other missing by mere inches. To Danny it was an ebb and flow, to Dash this intricacy was battle. Every thrust and move was to land upon him, but remained untouched. Dash, with his super sight would reach for Danny like a shadow of the sun in the dark. Ever moving, Danny would remain out of reach. He felt like a shadow being pursued in the most innocent of ways. Dash did too.

Over the fallow fields they would glide, giving substance to the others being and evidence of a love yet unconsummated. Each movement was consume and be consumed in a never ending chase to fill the gap. The stars twinkled even brighter on those nights. Every so often, a star's light would catch one or both of their eyes and shine a blue at the other like sapphire. Each person rose to preserve the brilliant flash, but, when it subsided, the contented themselves to know that another flash of crystal would greet them. They would continue their twists and turns like swirls of air. To us, they were air,

The coldness suited them at night too. They drew warmth from one another. They created heat from every teasing pass; every near miss was like fire. They were silent to the world when they were doing this celestial dance, but they spoke to each other with mutual feeling. The silence served an excellent template for the romance, affinity, camaraderie, and 'marshmallowiness', their relationship. Dash's passions grew more complex. He still craved the height of the physical act, but the mere closeness contented him and girded his heart like nothing else. Girded because he was so afraid of what could happen, afraid of what the reaction would be when it became clear. His heart felt, and his mind reasoned that this was what love must be, dancing in the top layers of the atmosphere.

This whole dance was Dash's idea, one Friday night a couple of weeks before this scene.

Dash had just finished up another lesson about ghosts. Specterology was the name of the subject, by the way. He had just finished understanding ghost vortices and how they provided a portal between the physical and ghost worlds. He had finished learning the Fenton Corollaries to major ghost theory. There were that ghost matter and physical matter were attracted to each other, but were held apart by time. Second, only contacts between physical and ghostly entities could change these attractions, and these entities would have to come together within time and physical space. Third, only entities that could defy time (none were known) could interact in such a way to bring ghost material and physical material together. Fourth and finally, if and only if the time barrier that divided the two worlds was broken, time will no longer be linear, but geometric. Geometric time was to mean that the multiverse that is supposed by many scientists to exist would become manifest and that crossing from one reality to another would be possible and easy. This also meant that people could go back in time. Funnily enough.

"That's fucking heavy." Dash remarked when finally understood him. "I'm just glad we don't have anything to do with that."

"So am I." Danny said, "I mean we don't know enough about this stuff anyway.

"Is there anything else for today?" Dash asked. "Because I have an idea…"

"No, that's enough for today. And what is it?"

"Let's go flying together." Dash suggested, "I mean, you don't have to carry me anymore, and I need some exercise."

"Fly together?"

"Yup?"

"Isn't that risky?" Danny asked, as if he didn't know the circumstances.

"Not if we're invisible,": Dash answered, "If we cant be seen or detected, what's the risk?"

And that was how their floating together started. It became an everyday thing, even if it were only for fifteen minutes. They could let go of all their struggles all of their pain and practice being one with flight. It was such a good feeling, and made Danny feel alive again. Dash had a knack for bringing Danny up.

The strange thing was that they never argued. They had tiffs and disagreements, but neither of them could imagine raising his voice towards his boyfriend or going to bed angry with him. Well, if they were going to bed, we can assume that anger had nothing to do with it.

That was September, with its still considerable daylight, moderate warmth, and re-encounters with friends.

October was showing something different. The relaxation of September was gone, A tangible austerity colored the month for all involved. Academics, the be all and end all for most, the invisible force that bound students to school, and the one thing that made romance so hard, was asserting a dominance over Danny and Dash. Football was taking up a similar amount of time for Dash. October also brought the first dance of the year, namely, the 'Halloween Hoedown'. This presented a special problem for the couple. They knew that they couldn't go together as to expose Dash, but they also knew that he could not afford to _not_ go. Not going would be social suicide. The dance would be on Friday the 27th, and he had to find a way out of going altogether, a girl to take, or a way to be seen at the dance but to leave as quickly as possible. He hated dances, but always went because it was expected of him.

"Just don't go," Danny tried to explain, when they got back to his house and chatted in his room, "The days surrounding Halloween always have extra ghost activity and I can use all the help I can get, Dash."

"I can't just _not_ go, Danny." Dash responded, "I am supposed to be there. Imagine if I wasn't at homecoming last Friday."

"Well, that's different Dash. That was a football game and you're the quarterback and a sexy one at that. And that was a great game. I finally understand football after you explained it to me. I would have never gotten that first down stuff. And that was a blowout 49 to 21."

"I'm still waiting for the prize you promised," Dash smirked, "You know…"

"Oh, I know," Danny answered him, "But, I want you to wait for it. Everything else comes so easy to you, but not this, not me. Besides, I'm still trying to work some things out."

"Like what?" Dash inquired.

"Nothing." Danny answered.

"Well, it's not nothing, but you don't have to tell me what is is if you don't want to. Just know that you can and I'm all ears." Dash answered.

"And don't you worry either. It'll happen soon. But till then, we have to think of a way for you to get out of this dumb dance." There was a slight pause, "Oh, I got it."

"What?" Dash asked.

"Do either of your parents chaperone dances at school?"

"God no, neither one of them would caught dead at a school function that isn't a football game. It's not like they go to those that much either. They stay as far away from Casper High as they can. Hell, if they can find an excuse to leave this town, they will. They like the low taxes, but that's about it. They said that we would live in a big city if they didn't hate the taxes so much."

"So, they're always out of town, right?"

"Yeah," Dash still wasn't following.

"So you could just say that they're dragging you out of town that weekend. Say that they're taking you to Chicago for some meeting that your father has to go to on Saturday and that you're driving from Friday when you get home from school. That way you're not there, you can save face because your not being there is not your fault, and you get to be with me."

"Sounds like a plan, but what if someone sees me in town on Friday evening or Saturday? Then what?"

"That's simple. Don't get spotted in town on Friday or Saturday. Dash you haven't forgotten that you can go invisible now, have you?

"It's not that. It's that's, well I guess I get your life that much more now, being trapped in ever shrinking spaces. I mean outside of this town there's so much to see. I mean this country alone has so much to amaze you with and I'm going to be stuck at home."

"Well, you're not going to be alone. I can come over."

"What if my parents are home on Friday or Saturday?" Dash asked. "They'll see you and hear us."

"Not if I'm invisible and you stream your thoughts to me." Danny said. "Besides, it's my turn to spend the night."

"Fine, you're right" The blond began, "but, it's my rules. First thing first, no underwear under those sweats you always wear, let things be free."

"Agreed, but you have to abide by the rules you set." Danny warned.

"Well, I walk around the place naked when it's empty, so…" Dash thought of something, "If you want to join me, I'll make sure to have the heat turned up. And we're definitely going to have use the sauna. My parents didn't pay for that thing for nothing. We'll play some video games too. Good at GTA?" Dash got excited.

"Well, I am pretty good at them. Haven't played in while so I might be a little rusty. And the sauna doesn't sound like a bad idea. I've never been in one, they look like fun, sitting and chatting with a friend surrounded by warmth. And we'll order a pizza?"

"Of course."

"Boys night!" Danny screamed with delight. "But towels in the sauna, right?"

"Well, I usually forgo it, but I can keep it on if you really want me to. You'll be a guest and wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable. We'll just go with the flow."

"Now, you're speaking my language." Danny said. "Just be patient and I'll show you what all this waiting has been for, deal?"

"Deal." Dash said, "I still don't think it's fair. I haven't, you know, since like the beginning of September. Do you know how hard it's been?"

"What? Really?" Danny asked, "I didn't know that you were taking that vow of you know… I didn't know you were doing this seriously." Danny's embarrassment became evident by the blush on his face.

"Wait? You mean you haven't?" Dash asked. "You mean, I've been denying myself the opportunity and you've still been whacking. When's the last time you came Danny?"

"Uh…mmm. I-"

"I'm not mad," Dash stated honestly.

"Um, well about 15 minutes before you came over," Danny chuckled nervously. Danny's face was still as red as could be, and while that was endearing to Dash, it concerned him immensely. Dash did not know how to phrase anything deliberately, and this was a great part of his appeal.

"Danny, why are you so embarrassed about sex?"

"I…"

"I mean, I know that it's not exactly a happy-go-lucky topic, but you almost seem afraid of it. I remember camming with you, but, as if by magic, I don't remember what anything looks like on you. I just hope you're not afraid of me looking at you or touching you. I uh… I know that the way I used to touch you was not exactly-"

The black-haired boy cut him off, "It's not you or camming. It's me. I just get so afraid that when it gets there… Dash, I just can't handle being that vulnerable. I have hugged you and kissed you, cried in your arms, and even shared a bed with you, but I'm just afraid of what sex means. It means that someone can do just about anything to me in that moment. I just- After you die, you realize what helplessness feels like. For some reason, that's all that I can associate with the act. I can flirt with you till kingdom come, because I can have some sort of control."

"I see." Dash answered, listening, attending to his boyf's fears in his head.

"I mean, I don't want to be a control freak or anything. I just want to know, for myself, that I can hold myself together."

"Danny, I don't want you to feel helpless. I would never make you feel helpless. I mean, does this have to do with your being a bottom?"

"No, that's gives my body pleasure." Danny answered.

"So, you can take the lead when you feel like it. When we get intimate, and I really do mean this, you can take the lead and teach me how to cater to your body and your pleasure. Nothing would make me happier than to show you and give you the pleasure and excitement you enjoy. But Danny, and I'm not calling you a liar, but I don't think that's it completely."

"Wh-"

"I think, Danny, that you're afraid of happiness. Self sacrifice is so crucial to you that you expect pain at every turn. Every shadow gives you pause."

Danny stood dumbfounded.

"It's like you're so afraid of happiness that you run away from the things that make you happy and hide when you're feeling that way. You can't hide it from me because I can read you like a book, but…"

"You're right." Danny started, "It started when I got the powers. I guess it's when I started this whole thing. When we started off, it was things like the box ghost annoying the town, but some heavy things happened and seeing your friends possessed or hurt makes it hard to show when you are happy. Now that I have something to be happy about, I guess I forgot how to deal with it. So, I'll try my best to show it when I'm feeling that way."

"I see flashes of it when I'm near you. Just let them ignite inside you. That's part of living, letting yourself feel all sorts of feelings. You make me feel like I can." Dash's tone changed to a phony semi-anger, "I mean look at what you're doing to me, Fenton. You're turning me into a mushy guy who talks about feelings."

"Well, we'll start feeling some feelings, but give me time. Rome wasn't built in a day nor will my ability to emote with you. And Dash, you never had a problem expressing yourself, just where you could express yourself. I guess that's the European in you."

"Oh, haha." He laughed sarcastically. "Just don't bottle anything up, at least not with me. If we can talk about sex so openly, surely we can tell each other how we feel. And I think, no, I know that when we both get completely honest with ourselves about how we feel, we'll be ready. I ain't saying that's tomorrow or next week or next month, but when that day comes, I'll be ready, willing, and able."

* * *

Kwan had always lamented that none of girls he went on dates with were cultured or even wanted to culture themselves. He had felt a terrible anxiety before when he told girls about his love for classical music. They either dismissed this right away as too boring for their taste or, without thinking, laughed at him and told him that football players were not supposed to be that 'sophisticated'. Football players were not supposed to have any higher sensibilities but to run and catch a pigskin. This usually offended him like nothing else, the myth that a human was either capable of being brawny or, in complete diametric terms, having the ability to feel or reason or express.

Jazz was different. She could revel in his tastes, enjoy his physicality, and have a conversation with her. Never did she condescend him or make him feel inferior; she did not have a snooty bone in her body. All of her inner beauty was made manifest by her poise, an attribute she did not know she possessed, warmth, a quality she tended to hide, and joy, which she expressed freely when she was sure of herself. He told her of the great attraction he had to features, he he loved her hair, her eyes, her cheeks, how she tilted her head when she read, how her voice harmonized with the words she said. The list was endless. wan has not known it, or how he did it, but she grew more comfortable in her skin around him. She believed for the first time not merely that she was pretty, but that's she was beautiful. He had thought of her from afar as someone so far above his station that he dare not try.

Now, he still thought that the heavens were arcing low to meet him for all of his trying. The result is that he, a mortal, should have been blessed to even kiss her hand. And to him, she was a fiery goddess. He hated how poetic it sounded, but beauty like hers too immense to be described and discussed in an academic mire. His mind failed him, so did English, Chinese, and the bit of French Dash had taught him. He only just gotten into his first dimension of what she meant to him, before he would be adrift in a sea of tender sentiment.

Her part of the story was similarly extraordinary. She was in a whirlwind of passion herself, punctuated by the little note he would leave her daily, or the texts he would send to remind her of how much he cared. At first, these displays jarred her. She almost asked him to stop, feeling that she could not properly react. She decided instead to respond to them. Since then, they had been in two correspondences, one verbal and the other written. These things were treated as separate entities that never discussed the other. There, in the letters, and only there, did Kwan dare to get flowery and elegant in his style. Stylistically, he was as good as they got. She would tell him in her letters to "Lyricize, rhapsodize" to his heart's content.

And he would, and she would too.

He had told her a few weeks in advance that he got them some opera tickets, and that they wouldn't been up in the nosebleeds. Therefore, she knew she had to buy something worthy of the occasion, worthy of him, and worthy of herself. Her budget was bottomless for all purposes for a few reasons. Many years of allowance went unspent in a coffee can in her room. She wanted for nothing, and neither of her parents felt it was proper to make her pay for what she did desire, books. So, from very young, she kept all of her allowance together stored in one place. It started as ten dollars per week when she was eight, doubled to twenty when she was twelve, and doubled again to forty when she went into high school. She also received lump sums of cash for birthdays and Christmases that would total several hundred dollars, especially after 'Uncle' Vlad's donation was didn't spend it because she had never needed to. Her mother still took her shopping for clothes and would pick up the tab. She would even put the money she found in the street in the coffee can that sat in the back of her closet.

She sat down and crunched the numbers, in her head, guessing that there could be a few hundred dollars in there. She, again, did not realize that she spent none of it. She simply squirreled it away. More than six years of allowance, gifts, coins (turned to dollar bills at those machines in the supermarket from time to time), and lucky dollar finds came up to way above her expectations. You have to remember that she would keep the money in her wallet when she received it, until it became too much for her wallet to hold. Then, she would take most of it out and put it in the can, not bothering to look at it or count it. The many years of this habit made money something she did not think about. The can would get filled every few months. A jar for coins would get filled up and she would live squarely within her means, never denying herself the luxuries that America afforded her.

Whenever she did treat herself, she would just go into her wallet. If that left her purse feeling lighter than she cared for, she would just wait for more money to come in. She never thought about the can. It was out of sight and out of mind. It simply sat in the back right corner with the plastic lid on top.

When she came asking for the money to buy herself a dress, her father, a man who only tried to make her happy, and a man eager to make amends for a sin he still felt was justified, gave her a couple hundred dollars along with her normal allowance. She forgave him and kissed him on the cheek, promising not to yell at him that strongly for a while, not matter how egregious his action. She had lost her cool, and while she did not feel even a pang of guilt about it, she did not like the loss of control. She put the money in her wallet and got the familiar feeling that it was too full; she couldn't close it.

So, after she locked the door, she added another hundred and twenty dollars to the jar. She did not know why but something made her dump all of the money out of the can and onto her desk. It was a mess of tens and twenties with a few hundreds interspersed throughout. First, she separated and sorted the denominations into neat piles. Then, she went about counting the hundreds, then the twenties, then the tens and the few fives and singles she found.

 **$14,797**

She gasped, but stopped herself from covering her face with her now very germy hands. She placed the money back in the can and tried to think about it no longer.

Staying within her budget, she purchased something she felt was worthy of her date. It was a black dress, simply made with the slightest hint of gold stitching along the seams that connected the sleeves to the bodice, and the the bodice to the skirt. The stitching was not flashy at all, but cast gentle glimmers of yellow gleam in the light. The black of the dress was matte, and did not draw attention to itself. It's high neckline and three-quarter length sleeves said two things: class and modesty. Lengthwise, the fabric ended at mid-calf and showed her legs to full advantage. She had already had a pair of black pumps, low heels as to keep herself from becoming too tall. She had a jacket that went the length of her body, down to her ankles. It was in a more muted shade of teal, more like dark cyan. She had a creamy white scarf that added some brightness to here ensemble and bounced some light back into her face and hair.

* * *

She wore her hair down that night. He picked her up and was wearing a black suit, white shirt, solid burgundy tie, and black leather belt and shoes. He thought a tuxedo was entirely too much. If he were going to the Met, he would have splurged for it, but considering the town's location and intention lack of formality, he decided a suit was sufficient. The Men's Warehouse in town only carried tuxedos in prom season; if anyone wanted to rent one any other time of year, they had to drive to Bedford for it. He was not nervous at all. Their dates were always fun since they enjoyed each other's company. They could partake in conversation or sit in absolute silence with comfort that teenagers rarely knew.

When he pulled up to her house that evening, the sun was set. He stopped in front of her stoop. He looked up to her room and saw the light on. He looked up and saw he figure silhouetted in her window. It amazed him how this whole thing was like a 1950s romance. He was beside himself with how much fun he could have, bound within the ancient rules of chastity and chivalry. The only thing he could think of was how ladylike and majestical she was as she leaned on the sill, watching, waiting for him. She came down immediately and took her seat beside him in the car.

"Don't you look handsome," she remarked.

"Thanks, you're looking beautiful tonight, but then again you look beautiful all the time."

"Well thank you," she accepted the compliment, "But, I assure you, I'm not beautiful when I wake up in the morning."

"I'm sure you are." He answered, as he drove towards downtown Amity.

"No, I'm not." She answered, with fake forcefulness.

"I think I'll be around in the morning to find out, one day." He answered.

"You mean after you've spent the night?" She asked rhetorically, "I think I'd like that, Kwan. I'd like that a lot."

"Really?" Kwan felt a lump in his throat, as if he swallowed a mouthful of sand.

"Well, there's still some more things we need to do." She slowed his roll, "First, I need to meet your parents and see if they like me."

"Well, my mom is eager to meet you." Kwan answered, "She's been wanting me to bring home a 'good girl' for a few years now. When I told here that I had a girlfriend she literally was jumping for joy. She said that she had been worried that I was you know…"

"Like my brother and Dash." Jazz said.

"Yeah," Kwan answered, glad he didn't have to say the word. Then his mind instantly spat this question from his mouth, "Wait a second. How did you know?"

"Well, Dash has spent every second he could spare with my brother. Danny tried to tell me that Dash was around for some ghost training. Thats was probably the weakest excuse he could have come up with."

"But, isn't it plausible? I mean, if Dash became interested in ghosts, your brother and you house would be the right person and place to go to."

She replied honestly, "Of course that's plausible, but… It's all in the things they don't say. They're so happy when they're around each other. I can't hear into Danny's room, and I can't hear the actual conversations, but I've never heard my brother laugh so much. I mean, he's actually skipping around the house. I've never seen him this happy and the only time he perks up this way is when Dash is around. That, coupled with umm... let's just say that once when I borrowed his laptop, he must have forgotten to delete his browsing history, or not gone on safe mode or something. Let's just say, my brother isn't straight and he really like jocks. He did not seem to know that he left it in his history, and I deleted it for him so that he didn't know that I knew."

"Well, I figured it out about Dash years ago. He never said it specifically, but a listening ear could put it all together effortlessly. Don't get me wrong, Dash's butch and manly behavior isn't a front. That's his real personality, but all the women in the world could disappear and he wouldn't notice it. I knew that the way he interacted with girls was not just aloofness, but a specific disinterest in them. And I can't tell you how much he would talk about your little brother. Day after day, I'd have to hear ad nauseam," Kwan cleared his throat and started to do his perfect imitation of Dash's voice, "He would go: 'Fenton did this. Fenton got some new shorts. Fenton grew an inch over the summer. You ever notice how fucking blue Fenton's eyes are? I think his voice is getting deeper? Why are his pants so tight?"

"Really?" She asked.

He went back to his normal voice, "Yeah, his infatuation with Fenton, his disinterest in girls, and some other factors led me to the conclusion a few years ago. He finally confirmed it last month and he confirmed the fact that he's dating your brother."

"Other factors?" She asked, "I'm not trying to pry, but that sounds really interesting."

"Oh no, you're not psychoanalyzing me tonight." He joked "But let's just say some things he's asked of me over the years let me know that he was something other than straight. But I'll go to the grave with those requests. Let's just say that I think he was curious and that he wanted to explore. I couldn't do it for him, I just wasn't there with him."

"Hopefully, they both get that with each other."

"Now, enough of them." He said, "Time for _Tosca_!"

* * *

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**


	27. Twenty-seven

Dash was home alone on that chilly Saturday morning, the 21st of October. His parents had gone to town, and he was wrapping up the last day of a week with calm exercise. He was in such a good mood that he felt, without a doubt, that nothing could spoil his mood. It was early, and he knew that Danny was probably still sleeping. It was 8:30 in the morning, and Dash knew that Danny was simply catching up on some of the hundreds of hours of sleep that he had sacrificed when Amity Park had daily, hourly ghost attacks. Danny would call him soon, and Dash felt a mellow assurance knowing that Danny would call him when he woke up, probably as soon as he woke up, gruff voice and all. The thought of that phone call and all the things that might be said made him content.

Dash really hated how marshmallowy these feelings were. Putting aside that these feelings were for another male, Dash could only marvel that he was capable of such deep feelings, such deep romantic sentiment for anyone. For a long time, he had thought, without questioning, that those unwieldy tools called emotions were stripped away by his father and his own 'straightening-out process'. Again, he could only think about the vague joy that the relationship gave him. He was grateful that the story of his life had taken such a radical turn. Thinking more on it, he knew would not have changed a thing about his circumstance. He needed for Danny to have caught him jerking off to gay porn to get to talk to him alone. He needed to talk to Danny alone to put the pieces together about the duality, the doubleness of his life. Most especially, he needed the slow burn that he he was experiencing now. Before, everything had been instant to him, but now he waiting. For the football star, the wait, the pursuit, and the teasing made the prize that much sweeter. Danny was truly perfect for him in every way.

His parents' ignorance about the situation, moreover, sweetened their relationship. He hated the secrecy, but it aroused his several appetites to know that Danny had a bond in privacy. No relationship can be fully understood by people looking from the outside, so adding curtains around it made it more worthwhile to him. Dash's football prowess already made him a person to see and not understood. He could appreciate that Danny did not gawk at him, his looks, his muscles, his money, or any of the superficial things. Danny liked him and loved him just for Dash's being Dash. Dash could not think of anyone else whose like or love towards him were not clouded by some other emotions, admiration or animus. Pick your poison. Even his parents did. His mother picked the former, and his father picked the latter.

But, with Danny by his side, all of those considerations meant nothing. He, for once in his life, could let the world pass him by, meditate, and just be in the moment. He was on his way down to his home gym to do just that, but something made him stop and go to kitchen before he did. Shrugging it off, he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. That moment of distraction kept him upstairs just long enough for him to hear the doorbell ringing. Wondering to himself who would come over unannounced, Dash walked down the corridor past the door down to the gym and to the front door. He peered through the frosted glass and saw two people, a guy with dark skin and a chick with dark hair. It did not hit him immediately who it could be, so he opened the door. He had to shut his eyes as a sharp, cold, late-October gust entered the house. When he opened his eyes again, he saw them.

There they were, Tucker and Sam, standing on his doorstep. They looked tired and haggard, as if they had stood outside during a hurricane. They both stood appropriately dressed for the chilly weather. She stood in all black, pea coat jeans and all. He wore a burgundy hoodie, lined with warm-ish fleece under a denim jacket. He wore jeans to match. Their fatigue showed, and for a second or two, Dash thought that they had fucked up again (literally) and that Sam was pregnant again. But then, without knowing how he did it, he saw something else on their faces. He would have to ask when and how he got so intuitive later, but he managed to focus on them. They looked desperate to him, and most noticeable of all, they looked penitent. Pure, humbled penitence like this was almost unfakeable, but Dash was confounded as to why they would be on _his_ doorstep.

"What are you doing here?" Dash asked in a more neutral tone than he thought he could muster. He was not as angry at them as he thought it would be. Danny had been so mellow about the situation, so Dash could and would be to. "What if my parents answered the door? What the hell are you doing here?"

"We want to be friends with Danny again," Sam started, inspecting his get up. He wore a tight black wife beater, and dark graphite-colored shorts of indistinguishable make that ended just above his knees. He had a towel wrapped around his neck which only served to show how broad his shoulders were. The rest of his outfit

"And we need your help to do it." Tucker added.

"But why are you so early?" Dash looked to the right at the clock on the wall, and then back at them, "It's twenty to nine on a Saturday morning."

"Well, we kinda just thought of it," Tucker explained, "We were texting each other all last night, and we figured that since Danny likes you so much…"

"You can help reconnect us to him," Sam finished for him.

Dash, managing to keep the door opened, crossed his arms and tilted his head in astonishment. The request and their mere presence at his house. "Why should I?"

"Because…" Tucker started before he bristled at another cool breeze, "Can we come in? It's freezing out here."

"Fine," Dash cleared a path for them, and the malapert misfits stepped into his house. He shut the door behind him and locked it. Then, he asked them to follow him to the living room, and they followed. Each found a place to sit on the sectional underneath the vent, blowing some much desired warm air on them.

"You, uh, want some water or something to drink?" Dash asked, unused to playing host to anyone besides Danny.

"No, we just want to get warm and talk to you," Sam insisted.

"Talk to me? Why?" Dash asked, sitting back in his seat. "You're problem isn't with me. It's with him. I'm not the person you need to talk to."

"You are because," Sam had to take a deep breath as if she was about to swallow cyanide, "Because you are the only person who can get through to him."

"Stop it," Dash started, "You act as if he's some unreasonable fucking idiot. You need to apologize to him yourselves. Just go to him, and say you're sorry. And I have no doubt that he'll forgive you. He forgave me for all the stuff I've done over the years. He wouldn't have been crying to me about the two of you if you didn't matter to him. You want to be his friends again?" He asked rhetorically, "You have to do the work."

"But we don't know where to start." Tucker started.

Dash, thoroughly exhausted with their wrangling, put them on full blast, "How about a real, proper 'thank you' for his saving your lives? How about finding him at lunch and just saying you're sorry? How about, instead of wasting my Saturday morning, you drive over to Fenton Works at eleven or twelve o'clock and talk to him the way you're trying to talk to me? Because, again, I'm not the person you have the beef with."

Tucker tried to explain their position, "It's just, we have never had this big a rift with Danny and we don't know how to fix it."

"Did you not just hear what I said?" Dash answered, his consternation growing, "When did you two become so scared? Danny has told me so many stories of you running into the danger, and several times I remember hauling ass out of there. You have walked into literal hell on earth, but you're afraid to talk to Danny?"

"Not afraid," Sam countered, "Just nervous. Nervous and unsure"

"Of what?" Dash wanted to slam his head into the wall this conversation was so frustrating. "The last things anyone should feel in Danny's presence is nervous, uncomfortable, or unsure. How do you think I was able to build such a great relationship with him?"

"We don't know what you've said about us to him." Sam tried to parry the blow.

He struck even harder, "You two don't come up. Ever, _not even once_. Even if you did, there's nothing I could say to make you look any worse. It was _you_ who upset my boyfriend, and it was _you_ who threatened to expose him. So stop wasting my time here or I will have to ask you to leave."

"Fine," Tucker started, then his voice got smaller, "You're smarter than you look."

Dash exhaled, needing to take a woosah moment, or two, "I'm going to ignore that insult for my boyfriend's sake. He cares enough about you still. When you passed out Tucker, and he thought for a split second that I punched you, I saw in his face that he was ready to dump me right there and then because he thought I hurt you. So, he still cares very deeply about you."

"Well, that's good news." Sam sighed in relief.

Taking great pity on them, Dash swigged and spoke, making a commitment that he had not expected, "Look. I see that you two are real sorry about the whole deal. I promise you that…I will talk to him about it."

"Thank you," they said simultaneously.

"I will tell him to talk to you, that's it. The getting back in his good graces part is on you and you alone."

"Fine, that's generous of you." Sam answered. "Why are you helping us at all?"

"Christian duty to help people in need. And also, I love my boyfriend, and he loves you." Dash answered.

"You aren't so bad after all." Sam replied.

"Fine, but don't go telling the whole school that. For the sake of my reputation, I can't have people thinking I'm a softy." His tone turned serious, verging on threatening as he looked at the both of them. No jury would call the tone menacing, but the words would certainly convict him, "And we all have secrets we want to keep secret. If you ever threaten to expose my boyfriend or me like that again, I _will kill you_. Understood?"

They both nodded in complete comprehension.

"Good." He smiled at them, "Now if that's all, I want to start my workout." He took the apple, a small Red Delicious, still in hand and took a bite. He stood up and started to show them to the door, Having scarcely had enough time to get warm from the unseasonable chill in the air, the ex-couple stood up, knowing how to take a hint. They went to the door, and just before leaving, she turned around.

She stammered as she spoke to him, blushing in deep embarrassment and vague arousal at his physique, "Uh, I never thought I'd ever be saying this, but… uh… thanks, Dash."

Dash nodded yes but warned them, "You're welcome, but I'm doing this for Danny not for you. Remember that."

"We will."

* * *

Dash, wearing his usual getup, his letterman and some jeans,came a-knocking at three that afternoon for some more training,. Danny's mother answered it this time, and Dash felt immediately was a pleasant, smiling woman, but she had the power to kill a man. Of that he was certain. And Dash was dating her son.

"You must be Dash," she answered, motioning for him to come in "You're the football star on the team. I recognize you from the newspaper. Number twelve, right?"

"That's right, ma'am." He said, stepping into the place that felt more like home, than that big house his parents owned in Amity Heights.

"Jack told me that you've been studying specterology with Danny, learning about ghosts."

"Yes ma'am." He answered, shutting the door behind him.

"And you've done a lot of work. Danny has shown me some of the tests. You seem to get it."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, Danny's down in the lab." She said, "He told me that you'd be coming around this afternoon."

"Yes-"

"Stop ma'aming me." She chided gently. "No quicker way to make a woman feel older than to call her 'ma'am'."

"Sorry, m-" Dash answered, "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit nervous." Realizing that this was the worst possible thing he could have said, he thought up a quick lie, "You know, the more I learn about it, the closer I get to mastering it, the more nervous I get about the whole science. I realize how life and death it is." Somehow, what he started as a lie became the truth.

"Well, I was in the same place. I had just met Jack, and he taught me about this. He opened the world to me with this whole thing. You don't just learn about this powerful science, but you learn so much about yourself in the process. You learn your limits; you learn the bounds of your imagination, intellect, and emotions. Knowing you're working with life and death, puts everything in perspective. It makes all the things you want and need, all those special people you love really matter. And I know my son is doing the same for you."

"Yes, he is." Was all Dash could muster as he wondered if she had more insight than she was letting on.

"Well, I'm happy for you then." Maddy said, "I've got to run out for a few hours."

"Oh ok," Dash started to make his way towards the basement stairs.

"Dash," she stopped in her tracks and turned back towards him. Thinking more on what she wanted to say, she closed the gap between them and pulled him gently towards her. She did it with ease, though he towered over her. She started, "I… Look, I know that Danny has told you about the lack of ghost activity. And I know that he's told you that that means there's something big coming. I love my son, and… I'm not going to say that he's helpless, but he's definitely harmless. As much as I want to, I know that I can't be around to protect him. I know how often you're around him. He likes you and trusts you, and those other two -and I never really liked them, but don't tell him that- I haven't seen them in months. So, if and when that big thing happens, and if you're with him, please protect him. He's just so… I hate to say it, but he's fragile. You aren't. I know how strong you are, so please promise me you'll take care of him."

"I promise." Dash answered, sensing the actual fear in her voice.

"And don't tell him I asked you this."

"I won't."

"Well, thank you. I appreciate that." She said, letting him go.

She departed. And he, trying to figure out what that whole conversation was, stood like a statue. His hands were in his pockets and he tilted his head to the left, as if he were standing in a modern art museum trying to figure out what he was looking at. In a way he was. Maddy had painted an abstraction in his head, and he wanted to know truly what it meant.

Only God knows how long he was standing there before he felt that familiar warmth behind him. Even if Danny wanted to, he couldn't sneak up on Dash. The twink tried it anyway, reaching from behind and hugging him from the waist. Much to Danny's disappointment, Dash didn't flinch, but only stood up straight. Danny's hand only traveled farther up him, squeezing Dash through the jacket.

Danny's only comment was, "Jesus, is your whole body this hard?"

"When I'm around you?" Dash asked rhetorically, "Yes." Dash continued, asking gently and contentedly, "What made you think you could sneak up on me?"

"I don't know. I just thought it'd be fun," Danny's hand's had gotten Dash's pecs. Basically climbing onto him, Danny wrapped his arms around Dash's chest and shimmied up. Then he wrapped his legs around Dash middle. The result was that Dash was basically giving him a piggyback ride. As further testament to Dash's strength, the football star did not lean, falter, or make the slightest complaint.

"What are you doing?" Dash asked.

"I just want you to give me a ride." Danny said. Apparently, the silly person Danny had claimed to be in prior conversations was coming out. Dash was delighted to see Danny finally relaxing. He looked down at the arms and legs wrapped around his body and saw that they were covered by what look like pajamas

"Your mom said you were down in the lab."

"Like three hours ago." Danny laughed, "Then, I started thinking about you since I knows that you were coming over, and I basically worked myself up. So, I needed to release drain the poison. Then right when I finish up and come downstairs to make myself a sandwich, I see you standing down here looking like you were thinking about quasars and pulsars and shit."

"Whoa, wait a second? Three hours‽" Dash asked excited and impressed.

"Well, not exactly. Had to shave, sanitize some objects, check, double check, and then triple check that the door was locked. Then I got to business. So maybe two hours and forty-five minutes."

"No wonder you're a tired mess." Dash answered, "And the blood was diverted from your brain that you're all loopy."

"Maybe," Danny conceded, "But I had fun, and seeing you here." Danny started grinding his hips into his lover's back, and he leaned his head towards Dash's ears and whispered. "I kinda wanna do it again."

"Oh, is that so?" Dash asked.

"Yes."

Danny started nibbling at Dash's ear. The blond moaned at the touch, but knew he had to stop lest he forget why he came over. "I… we need to talk," Dash said, his tone still aroused. The slip-up only managed to make Danny more excited.

"Body-talking?" Danny asked seductively.

"No." Dash said, finally managing to master his tone of voice. "We need to talk, like really talk. It's about Foley and Gothc-... I mean Tucker and Sam. They came over to my house this morning."

"What?" Danny immediately disentangled himself and floated over to the couch.

Dash spoke as he walked over to the couch and sat. "Yeah, about nine this morning. They showed up and were begging me to talk to you about talking to them. They were pretty upset."

"Angry upset? Nervous upset? Anxious upset?" Danny asked.

"Anxious upset? They are anxious to be your friends again, and they are nervous that you'll reject the or that you hate them."

"I don't hate them. I don't know what got into them a few months ago, but I don't hate them. I'm not even mad at them anymore. I just want them to promise me that they'll _never ever_ threaten me like that again. We don't need anyone knowing either of our secrets."

"Well, I put the fear of God into them about doing that." Dash nodded.

"Thanks." He answered, "But when can I talk to them, like let me set up a meeting-"

"It's not a committee meeting," Dash answered, "Just tell em to come over whenever you want them."

"How about right now?" Danny posed. "You don't mind if we put off our date tonight?"

"I'm used to them taking my romantic time from you away." Dash said plainly, "How about you call them over now?"

"No." Danny answered, "Could you call them? I don't want them to answer my call and try and hash it out over the phone."

"Fine, but I don't have their numbers."

"Lemme get my phone." Danny floated to his room to grab it and brought it back down. Danny handed it to Dash.

"It's locked," Dash said, handing the phone back to Danny.

"Oh, the code is 3-2-7-4." Danny answered, "I don't have anything to hide. There's some porn on there, but nothing to hide."

"Mine is five digits, 3-2-6-6-9" Dash answered, "It's been my code for years…" Dash scratched the back of his head, "And it spells out 'Danny' on the keypad.

"You shitting me? Mine spells out 'Dash'."

"Maybe we'll be watching that porn together," Dash responded, "I kinda think that would be so cool to just…"

"I don't think it would be cool," Danny said with a false sternness that made Dash frown, "I think it would be HOT!"

"Oh, really want to?" Dash went from glum to glad, "Really, maybe some twinks? Some dark-haired ones."

"Maybe some jocks? Some blond ones." Danny answered. "Football players make me so horny. You know, I just want one who can appreciate my tight end."

"Well, um phew… it's warm in here…" Dash could barely comprehend that his life was about to turn sexy within the coming chapters (cough cough) of his existence. He didn't know how Danny knew the terminology, but melding the football player's two loves, Danny and football, made him too lusty for words. Dash already called cumming a touchdown, so Danny would make it like the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. "God… it's really warm in here"

"It's warm in your pants too, I'm sure." Danny answered, "Let me take a quick look..

"As much as I want to pound your hole, I did promise them this whole conversation. Let me call them before we forget."

"Oh, you're a good boyfriend." Danny said, caring about my friendships, "Don't worry, I'll reward you soon."

"Really?"

"Yes, so much so that I'll ask you if there's anything special you want. Anything you want me to wear? Anything you want to see?"

"I trust you to know what to do." Dash gave the right answer.

"Good." Danny said, "You'll be informed. Now call them?"

* * *

Sam and Tucker got to Fenton Works just as the sun was setting, a little after six. Dash was the one who answered the door, and their disappointment at his mere presence. Ignoring their terrible dispositions, Dash showed them back to the living room where Danny was sitting. Now, it did look like a committee meeting, with Dash and Danny sat upon one side, the door front behind them, and the penitents on the other.

The room was silent as Danny sat stark mute waiting for them the make the first move. He took no pleasure in their discomfort, but he did not feel any pity for them either. They strained the relationship. They made his life hell. And most importantly they were the ones who needed forgiveness. Dash sat back in the chair feeling uncomfortable. He narrowcasted a thought to his boyfriend.

 _"Maybe I should leave. My being here doesn't help. I'm gonna go."_ Dash thought to Danny.

 _"No, stay."_ Danny thought back

Then, Dash did something technically unethical, though understandable in the moment. He focused on Sam and started to read her thoughts. Much to his dismay, Sam's thoughts were wild and vacillating.

 _"Why the fuck is 'beefcake' here? Why did I just call him beefcake… I mean look at him though… I can see why Danny could be attracted to him… cuz Danny's gay… but why didn't I see it… I always thought he liked that Paulina slut… need to apologize… but can't with idiot jock holding his hand… I mean look at them…"_

Dash looked down and realized that Danny was indeed holding his hand. Dash did not let go. He, on the contrary, gripped harder as a sign to Danny, a testament to his relationship.

He continued listening intently, _"I… I want to just die right now… rather than look like I'm groveling in front of blond idiot… I mean fuck it… my option one is holding my option two's hand..."_

Dash was profoundly dismayed by the statement, but he dare not let it show. He was unsure of what she meant, but if she indeed was conveying what he thought she was, he was rendered beyond crept out. The fact that she liked him made him nauseous, anxious, and flaccid in a grand swoop of negative feeling. Hoping that maybe Tucker would have a healthier, less sickening thought process, Dash switched to him. Tucker's thought process went something like this. _"Dammit, it looks like I'm the one who's going to have to start this._ "

So he did, "Um Danny," Tucker started, "Thanks for... um... talking to us Danny. I just… we just wanted to say" Then, Tucker stopped, and realized that he didn't need to act so formal, "Look Danny, we realized that we fucked up. And I'm sorry about it bro. We treated you like shit, and it was wrong, and I'm sorry." By the end he had had to take off his glasses, because he had started weeping openly. His voice had also starting cracking beyond recognition.

"Yeah," Sam started crying too, "I'm sorry about it too. All of it. I don't know what got into us, but the way we were acting is totally our fault. Seriously, Danny. I'm sorry. Tucker's sorry. We're both really really sorry. And if you can find it in your heart to forgive us, we promise never to threaten or hurt you on purpose ever again."

"You promise?" Danny asked, the tears welling up in his.

"Yes," they both said together, "We promise."

"Good," Danny floated out of his seat and hovered towards them. He remained in a prone position, floating as he wrapped his arms around both of them. They reciprocate the gesture as the sweat and tears they shed melded the trio of best friends back together. "I forgive you," Danny said as his hug turned into the heat of tears and sweat. The warmth of the moment. Was intimate, and Dash was the only person on earth lucky enough to witness it. Happy to see his boyfriend reunited with his best friends, Dash did shed a couple of tears, but did not dare let Sam and Tucker see. He wiped them away quickly, 'straightened out', and had regained his composure by the time Danny's hug ended. The ghost boy floated back over to his seat, and sat closer into Dash than he had before.

Wiping away the tears, and regaining the usual resonance in his voice, "Well, guys. I know that we all have history, but I need all of you to get along. I need my _boyfriend_ to get along with my _best friends_ because all three of you are very important to me."

"I think all of us can agree," Dash said, leaning forward, "We all want to protect and help and love you the best way we can. And that means… Well, I'll try my best to get to know you guys. I uh… I know your names… and that's about it."

"Well, yeah." Tucker said, agreeing with the sentiments expressed and with the assessment of their collective ignorance.

"Look, Dash," Sam started, "I can't just forget everything you've done to-"

"And I can't either," Dash cut off that stupid shit quickly, "But, it doesn't help anyone to simply say 'you were worse.' That's useless. You don't have to fall in love with me, you don't even have to like me, but you you do have to work with me to help keep this town, maybe even this country or world, safe. I might just be some idiot jock to you, but I'm an idiot jock, with you, on the right side of the fight to keep all of us safe. Respect that, at least."

Sam sat back and crossed her arms and huffed slightly, realizing that she had been beaten, out-talked by a quarterback, "Hmmm, you're not as dumb as you look." It was a barb, but she seemed to be so prickly in defense of a really sensitive, gentle nature.

He turned it into a joke, "Well, maybe all those hits to the head knocked some sense into me."

Tucker and Danny chuckled a bit, but she could not believed she was being talked around by Dash. He really wanted to just ask her what her damage was, but he knew that the core of it would really come out, probably at the worst time possible. Tucker actually looked over at Dash and thought that some sort of relationship was possible. He trusted Danny's instincts in picking a boyfriend, revealing the ghost secret, and helping them with the pregnancy. That added up, made Tucker reconsider Dash in a new light and would try to forge something together. He did not dare call it a friendship, but maybe an alliance.

Dash spoke again, "Look, it's gonna take me a while to trust you, and I know I have to earn your trust too. Danny trusts all three of us, Sorry to cut you out like this, Danny. But how about, all three of us go out together and get something to eat?"

"You, being seen with us in the street?" Tucker asked, "Serious?"

"Dead serious." Dash answered.

"But why not go out in the open Danny?" Sam asked. "He's not your little secret, is he?

He started calmly, but the more he spoke, the more his feeling came out. "Because walking down the street holding my boyfriend's hand would draw too much attention. Making out with him would attract too much interest. And you should know better than I do that the name of this is discretion." His voice started getting getting louder and higher than he would have liked. "So you listen to me, and listen good. My whole life and existence has been lived in real secrecy. And I am _not_ going to give up my happiness, our fucking happiness because you want to see a sign in the street that I love Danny. I'm fucking in love with him and I don't give a shit about your petty, bitchy little game."

Realizing that she unleashed something which had probably been festering for a short lifetime, she sunk back in the seat. _"Fuck, I should've quit while I was ahead."_ She thought to herself. Tucker looked over at her and wanted to strangle her. Danny's expression to her was also one of disappointment and exasperation as he felt his boyfriend's skin turn super hot.

Then the tears of rage started flowing and more about him started to some "My whole fucking life I've been in the closet hoping, trying to pray the gay away. Then I find a boyfriend, the guy I've been crushing on since the third fucking grade and he like me back. We live in the middle of Biblethump America, and you want me to walk down the street and put the both of us in danger. Do you know what they say about gays, people like me, among my father's friends? No, you don't! So don't you sit there and lecture me about how much I love Danny."

Tucker tried to stop Dash, but the blond was in full shout. "Dash-"

"No," Dash continued, throwing caution into the wind, "She doesn't believe it. I love Danny!"

" _You what?_ " Dash heard a voice from behind him. A female voice. She sounded surprised, but not upset. Tears still streaming down his face, he turned around and saw her.

It was Jazz, standing the door still open. She shut it immediately. Dash wiped the tears from his face and coughed to gain his normal voice back.

"You what?" Jazz asked again, stepping closer to Danny.

"It's not like that." Dash recovered quickly, "We were talking about how we became frien-"

Danny stopped his boyfriend, "No, Dash. We don't need to lie to her." Then Danny looked over at his sister, "I'm gay, and Dash is my boyfriend."

"Well that took long enough," She went over to her brother and hugged him from behind, "And I'm glad you guys are happy."

Dash asked "How did you know? Did Kwan tell-"

"No, he didn't, Dash. I already knew because I have eyes."

"Oh-"

"But now we need to talk. All of us."

She pulled up a chair and sat next to her brother. The conference of four turned into the committee of five. Not knowing where the tension was, Jazz sat uncomfortably amongst them. She focused on Sam because that's where all of them were looking.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	28. Twenty-eight

CONTINUED FROM TWENTY-SEVEN

* * *

… "But now we need to talk. All of us." Jazz said.

She pulled up a chair and sat next to her brother. The conference of four turned into the committee of five.

"There's nothing more to explain." Danny said, shrugging "Dash and I are dating like I said. We've gone out a few times, talked a lot, and are really, really into each other."

Jazz leaned into Danny, "For how long? I mean, I've had my suspicions, but…"

"Well, if you count our mountaintop talks," Danny reasoned without giving away too much, and Dash nodded, "I would say September fifth."

"So, what are you two doing here?" She pointed to Tucker and Sam. "It's just, hell, I haven't seen you guys since June. And you look like you two were crying. I hope they were happy tears." And in that moment all four either realized or remembered that she was the most intelligent oblivious person one could ever meet. She was perceptive, but also accepted things at face value. Her innocent, sheltered life never challenged her to have to look for any vile, wicked, or in anyway contrary to what people, civilized people, find acceptable. Her very nature was refined, so nothing untoward sprung forth from her under normal circumstances. Somehow, in the grand scheme of things, Jazz found this to be a normal day and a normal discussion.

"Well, fine. I guess you guys aren't ready to tell me the rest. I'll find out one way or another." Jazz crossed her arms in defiance, knowing that all would be revealed to her. We have to give her credit for knowing that there is more, and her super sleuthing might help her along.

Danny deflected as he had taught himself to do long ago, "Jazz, I don't have anything else to tell you. I mean I did just come out of the closet, so I don't think any other secrets could be lurking."

"Just promise me, we'll talk about it." Jazz answered, "All of it."

"Sure." Danny shrugged and answered to appease her and diminish her doubt.

"But now I need to talk to you two." She pointed at Sam and Tucker, and was pushing through all the issues that had been suppressed. "Where have you two been?"

"What?" Sam was awful at lying, and knowing it, she plowed on. "We've been here the whole time."

"No, you haven't." Jazz clapped back immediately, dispelling the mistruth, "I mean… I always used to see you three together. And, no offense Danny, but I was starting to become deeply concerned that you were forming a profoundly unhealthy psychological dependence on them. When I saw that the three of you weren't together as much, I was half-relieved and half-worried. I was relieved, I must admit, because I had thought that you, meaning Danny, had found some other friends or, at least, that you were starting to spend a healthier amount of time with them. I became worried when I would see that neither Tucker nor Sam were here, ever. So," she looked again at Tucker and Sam, "Where've you been?"

"Fine." Tucker threw his hand up in defeat. If she didn't become a therapist,he thought that she should become a district attorney after that indictment, "Danny and we got into some problems. We weren't on speaking terms, and Sam and I are the only ones to blame. We came over to apologize to your brother."

"And did you accept it?" She asked her brother, not failing in her duty to be our favorite endearing busybody. "Because forgiveness is for you, not the forgiven."

"I did." Danny said. "And I know that Jazz."

"So when did the screaming start? And why?" All Jazz needed was a bowl of popcorn to look even more meddlesome. It was gossip, top notch, firsthand gossip.

"Well, Sam said something that pissed me off," Dash answered instantly. "And it just took me to another place. A place of a lot of personal pain, but I'm not talking about it here or now."

"Don't worry." Jazz started, seeing and know that Dash was hurting, "I won't push, but I'll say this. Dash-"

"Yes?" The blond answered. Annoyed and edgy were not quite the words, but a French term, _énervé_ , put both of those words together and described perfectly how he felt.

She said something that her pretraining had taught her as fact, "Dash, if you can't, don't, or won't feel it, you can't heal it. Whatever it is. That's all I'm going to say about it."

"I'm sorry." Sam interjected. "I um… I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

"It's okay." Dash answered her.

"How about we do like you suggested?" Tucker started, "Maybe we go to the Nasty Burger and talk."

"Sure," Dash said, "But what about you, Sam? Aren't you some sort of vegan? What are you going to get from th-"

"Some fries." Sam answered, surprised that he considered her dietary restrictions.

"When should we go?" Dash asked.

"How about right now?" Jazz looked down at her watch, a sensible, but no less dainty analog, and checked the time, "I mean it's not even four o'clock."

"Well, I had a date plann-" Dash answered.

"It's fine, Dash. We'll go someplace later, maybe sometime later this week." Danny's sense of self-sacrifice was always present, and, without wavering, it made itself manifest here. This time Dash did not appreciate the selflessness now, but he knew that the day he would be repaid for his, and subsequently Danny's, long-suffering and cheerfulness sooner rather than later.

Dash quietly sighed his familiar disappointment and starting buttoning his letterman. He knew that the date would have to wait for later, but he knew he was in the better position that afternoon. He only had to talk to Sam and Tucker. Danny would have to sit through the coming interrogation/quasi therapy session presided over by his loving and overbearing sister. Sam and Tucker felt a similar pitiful relief. They were happy they could be out of question time, but, in escaping, they were forced to stay with someone they had considered a nuisance.

* * *

"We'll take my car," Dash said, as Sam, Tucker, and he descended the steps. "There's enough room. You two can decide among yourselves about who rides shot-"

"Shotgun!" Tucker called out.

Sam just shrugged as they walked to his car and he unlocked the car and they all took their seats.

The ride to the Nasty Burger was in silence for a bit. Dash didn't know what to do, so he reached over to his radio and turned it on. Funnily enough, it hadn't been on in the last few months because Dash and Danny usually enjoyed each other's conversation or the comfortable silence that followed. Dash and Danny had talked about music before, and while Danny's tastes trended more towards the Top 40 Pop realm, Dash's were a bit more esoteric. So when Dash turned on his radio, it went straight to 90.7, Amity Park's only metal station.

"Nice." Was all Dash muttered to himself when he heard some Dumpty Humpty playing. They had been getting more and more metallic from their earlier day and he liked it immensely.

"Wait?" Sam asked surprised, "You like metal?"

"Yeah." Dash said, before asking considerately. "You want me to change the station?"

"No, I like metal music too." She answered. "I just thought you'd be more into country I guess."

"Country?" He asked incredulously, "It's godawful."

"It's the best type of music there is," Tucker replied seriously. "Don't make me start singing."

"It's terrible moaning." Dash laughed. "Or it's nonsense. Seriously, they all sound like they're-"

Tucker started singing. "Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today. Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away."

"Christ, that's awful." Dash muttered. "Like a sob story being sung by a retard"

"You just haven't heard the right singer yet. I don't think Tammy Wynette would really be your style. She's probably to feminine for you I guess." Tucker tried to argue.

"I'll try to ignore that." Dash said, quite amused that gayness now meant that he couldn't listen to a woman sing. Thinking about it, Dash couldn't really think of a female singer he liked to listen to. He would have said Ember, but he knew that he was under a spell when that took place. None of the pop music interested him, and his favorite bands might have had women, but they were never the front men of the.

"If you like metal so much, maybe some of the later stuff from Hasil Adkins will be your type." He proceeded to sing again, "Sally Wally Woody Waddy Weedy Wally."

"See, that's nonsense." Sam answered, "Dash's right. It's like R&B but lamer and weird sounding."

"And metal is just shouting." Tucker said, crossing his arms in defiance. "And being angsty. And we're already teenagers don't we have enough of that. I mean our whole existence are about being nervous. I listen to music to escape, not to be reminded that life sucks then I die."

"Fair enough," Dash argued, "But… wait… Are you… are the three of us actually talking?"

"It seems so." Tucker said as they pulled up to the , "I guess anything's possible, huh?

"Who you telling?" Sam added. "Before we go in, how did you and Danny get together?"

"Well," Dash said turning red in a bit of embarrassment and gripping the steering wheel in a vice-like grip, "And I don't even know why I'm telling you this… but Danny kinda caught me jerking off in the men's locker room."

"What?" Sam had actually not heard him. Tucker could barely keep his mouth shut.

"I said, Danny caught me jerking off in the men's locker room. Okay, ain't proud of it."

"Wh-"

"Look," Dash started, "So basically, I was in the locker room. It was after school. Danny ended up fighting that Box Ghost thing. The fight basically ended up in the locker room. I jumped and hid when the fight ended up in there. I dropped my phone, my headphones came out and my volume was all the up. He picked it up and handed it back to me."

"But how did that make you guys end up talking on the top of Mount Amity?" Tucker asked.

"Well, he was gonna basically let me off the hook, but then I asked him if we can talk. I was having a breakdown, and he, out of pity I guess, maybe out of interest, he said that we can talk. He even offered to fly me home. Knowing now what the truth was, I'm surprised he didn't out me or pummel me on the spot." Dash nodded, "So we kept talking and we got to know each other. Then one night, it just hit me how Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person. Then I told him that I figured it out. It was the day after you and Danny had that really bad phone call. The night of the storm, he flew all night in the clouds. He told me that he didn't want to know how long would cry for, so he flew in the rain so that he wouldn't be able to tell the tears from the rain. And you know the rest."

"Yeah," Sam muttered to herself. She didn't want to remember that low moment in her life, nor did she want to rehear the vile things she said to him.

"So, you guys wanna go in?" Dash asked, "I'm starving."

* * *

Their food came quickly because there place was empty on a Sunday. That suited all three of them because it would be social suicide to be seen. Thinking on the that fact, Dash brought up a very good point that needed to be discussed. They needed to have a story, a ruse that was believable and could explain why the three or four of them were seen together.

"Guys," Dash started, attracting their attention, "I know that we're just starting to get to know each other, but we have to remember that we all have secrets to keep. And we have to avoid arousing suspicion."

"We're experts at that, Dash." Tucker answered. "We've been doing it for years."

"But not with me. I mean, the only reason we, all three of us, can come here today is because it's Sunday. But we need to think of a good story to tell we're seen together during the week."

"Good point," Sam answered. He was a lot smarter than she gave him credit for.

"What classes do we have in common? Do you guys have French?" Dash asked.

"Yeah," they both answered.

"Okay, we have a group project to do. Or you're my tutors. One of those two excuses will work, I'm sure."

"I actually could use a tutor for French." Tucker said.

"Eh bien, je n'essaie pas de me vanter, mais…" Dash started, and watched their jaws dropped, "J'ai parlé français toute ma vie. Si tu as besoin d'aide, juste dire le mot."

"You…" Tucker started… "How did you do that? "

"And what did you just say?" Sam asked, dropping the french fry she was holding.

"All I said was 'I don't want to brag, but I've spoken French all my life. If you want help, just say the word.' That's all I said."

"What's next?" Sam asked, "You speak Chinese too?"

Dash coughed and then said earnestly, "我会说一点普通话." (Yes, I speak a little Mandarin) Dash said with no American accent before continuing in English, "but not as well as I speak English and French."

They could only stare at him as he bit into his burger. They would look at one another and then back at him, both of their mouths open in awe.

* * *

Danny moved with his sister to her room to continue their discussion. What she wanted to discuss was a mystery to him, but he had promised her and himself that he would tell her the truth, or at least the information that they could bear to think about. He sat at the edge of her bed and she sat towards the headboard. He knew that she only had his best interest at heart, and that, without a doubt, she would be an ally in his corner. That made him feel good to have a sister who cared so much, good and normal. She was the only normal one in the family, and he knew that she was only trying her best to protect him from the buffeting winds of normal life, and the tornadic changes that the last name Fenton attracted.

"Danny, I'm here to talk to you only because I want to make sure that you're safe. That's why I wanted to talk to you alone so that you don't have to worry about how anyone will react."

"Okaaayyy?" Danny lifted a brow and was thoroughly confused by her tone.

"Danny," she said," the concern oozing from her voice, "It's just that I… Dash used to bully you and I just want to make sure that he isn't-"

"I actually have a confession to make about that…" Danny started.

"Oh?" She was surprise but, as always, ready to listen.

"I just want to say that I may have exaggerated the things I used to say about him." Danny was telling the truth now, "He never hit me. He never punched me. He never slapped me or bit me or did anything that would leave a bruise. I guess I wanted it to be that way so I could stop liking him so much. He… he wasn't bullying me… all he would do is lift me up, grab me a bit, touch me… I-"

"But did it scare you?" She was concerned.

"No," Danny continued, "I scared me. I was scared of how much I wanted it. How much I wanted him… If I'm being honest, I really felt safe when he was there holding me like that. After he would go away in the morning, I was basically alone. Sure, Sam and Tucker were there, but... I still was grappling Jazz…"

"With what?" Jazz asked.

"Being gay… realizing it, accepting it, wanting to tell someone… Looking at Sam and knowing that she liked me, but knowing I could not, I could never be the straight man she wanted and needed. Looking at Tucker and lying. Hiding _another_ thing from mom and dad," He didn't realize the risk in that statement, but he was venting so he didn't care. "I was wrestling with the hope that Dash was really enjoying it in the way I thought he was, but he hid it so well. He played it so straight that deep down inside, I believed that he would never feel the same way and that he would kill me if I ever told him. I don't want to be so melodramatic, but that's how it was in the beginning."

"And now?" She asked.

"And now, everything is wonderful. Dash is so kind to me, so considerate, so understanding. I- I love him. And I love him for him. We talk all day. We make each other laugh, and, most of all we get each other. We can read each other's minds." Danny know that Jazz would take that as hyperbole, but he knew that he was telling the truth, "We just fall deeper and deeper in love. I mean maybe one day… I know it's a long way off, but maybe one day… we'll… it's legal in the whole country so… I'm not even down there yet, but I want to be with him more than I want to take my next breath. He just… captivates me… I never felt anything like this before… I'm almost so into him that I'm afraid of what I'd feel if he was ever away from me..."

Jazz was wide eyed, but she regained her composure. "I didn't know you felt so strongly…"

"It is the most intense thing I've ever felt." Danny answered. _"More intense than death."_ He thought to himself.

She squinted and looked at Danny in utter suspense. A thought just popped into her head, a sinister thought, a thought she wish she could banish away. But it set up shop, and Danny was the only person who could evict it, divorce it from her mind. Feeling conflicted, she knew the only problem is that the way to discard the thought was to go against her normal protocol and ask something that she would not want to ask. She would have to put Daniel into the lion's den.

But ask she must to put her consciousness in order. It would have robbed her of sleep if the thought that was haunting her turned out to be more than a mere notion. She hoped that Danny would repeat the biblical metaphor and come out unscaved. The question she needed to pose to him was very simple. There were many ways to formulate it, and it had been asked millions, possible billions of times before, but now she felt the blood rushing to her face as she had to ask it.

Putting away her modesty, squeamishness, and Midwestern sensibility, she asked plainly, "Danny," she took a breath, "Are you two sleeping together?

"No-" He answered.

"It's just that you said that it's the most intense thing you ever felt. And I… you mean that you've never slept with him."

"Well yes, but-"

"It's a yes or no question, Danny."

"Calm down, Jazz. Let me explain." Danny wanted to allay her anxiety immediately, but she need to be anxious in silence while he did it.

"We have actually slept in a bed, like sleeping, snoozing, and snoring together. But I have not had sex with him or anyone else. And don't tell him that I told you, but neither has he, and I was his first kiss too."

"Really?"

"He's a stud, but under that letterman jacket, and those muscles is a big and sensitive heart," Danny answered, "Besides, I hear Kwan is the same way, taking you to the opera, going out to eat at _Le Bonnet_ out in Bedford. Trading books and talking about whatever you two talk about. Quantum physics, and quasars and cooking and communism. I bet right now you two are reading _Dante's Inferno_."

"No, actually we're reading _Paradise Lost_ and are in a book club that Lancer's in.

Danny shuddered.

She continued, "But anyway, you should go to _Le Bonnet_ too." She encouraged, "Get into your Sunday's best and show eat some good food. Let the rich boy blond football star to pick up the check. Get a steak, some lobster. Enjoy yourself. Let your hair down."

"No," Danny said, "We're both cheap dates. If either of us had to dress up it ain't happening."

"Aww come on," She pouted playfully, "We should make it a double date. Maybe we two can introduce you two to some culture."

"Listening to a woman sing in a different language? No thanks." Danny answered laughing, "And if you think I'd be bored, Dash'd snoring out loud in the opera house. So the opera is not going to happen. An action movie would be better."

"Fair enough, but Danny…" she reminded, "If and when you do sleep with him… just be careful…"

"I will." Danny answered, "And you too…"

"Thank you." Jazz answered. "Kwan and I are going someplace. I know that. I'm going to meet his parents soon. He might invite me over for Thanksgiving too."

"Thanksgiving?" Danny asked.

"It's only a month away." she reminded him, "It's just about the end of October."

"Dash's birthday is soon." Danny remembered, "Really soon."

"You need help picking out a present?" Jazz asked. "Something football related definitely would be the way to go."

"Oh," Danny thought about what he would give Dash. Not allowing his tone to betray his thoughts, he continued "I know what I'm going to give him. He's a simple guy. So it'll be easy."

"So…" Danny started, "Can we gossip about out boyfriends now?"

* * *

"You're not so bad after all." Tucker said, as they walked back to the car, "It sure is good to have a third person on the team. So now you understand the exhaustion we were going through all these years. No time to study.

"Thanks, I guess…" Dash answered, "So, I've dedicated hours and hours to catching up to your sort of expertise. So my life has been school, football practice and games, specterology, and then getting to sleep at about midnight. Wake up at six and do it all again."

"I didn't know you were so disciplined." Sam said.

"Try playing football." Dash said, "It's not just a game. It's military strategy and therefore it's very disciplined."

"But you have your whole life so regimented. How do you…"

"You just do, and when you get the free time, you try your best to make the most of it." Dash answered, "Look, having life on a strict schedule isn't that much fun. Not much time for self-expression, so it just comes out." Dash's expression softened. "I'm sorry for barking at you like that, Sam."

"No problem," She answered. "That was kind of a bitchy move. I didn't realize you felt so strongly about him."

"I do. And I know the two of you love him deeply too… as your friend." Dash said, "Look, I'm not saying that we have to be in love with each other, or even get along, but we do have to work together because all of the signs say something is coming. Something big. We can't see the signs with our eyes, but all the science says that this is something that only happens every couple thousand years."

"We understand, and if we're going to work together, we're going to get along." Sam said and Tucker agreed. They stopped, standing right in front of his car.

She stuck her hand out. Feeling like this was the first step, he reciprocated and shook her hand. Then he shook Tucker's.

"So," Dash started, "What does this make us?"

"Partners?" Sam asked.

"Partners." Dash agreed.


	29. Twenty-nine

Been busy lately, but I'm back now. Here's a new chapter and there's going to be some fun soon. Please comment and let me know what you think. ;)

Tucker was surprised when he saw Danny walking up to him when he was by his locker alone on Friday morning. It had finally turned Northern Midwest cold, so Tucker was spending his time unfurling scarves and removing the ridiculous layers of clothing necessary to survive out there. The night before, a hard frost settled in and a brief flurry swept through town leaving a dusting of snow on all the surfaces. Tucker could handle the cold once he got used to it, but the first week or two of the hard cold always brutalized him. At least, it was Friday, so he would be able to stay inside all weekend in the warmth. Tucker was embarrassed when his coat zipper got stuck.

Danny was there at least. "Let me help you with that," Danny said as he quickly freed the zipper and allowed Tucker to get free.

Taking off his coat, Tucker thanked Danny for the help.

"Well," Danny started, "I was coming here to ask you for some hello with something. You're the only one who can do it…" Danny said, starting to blush as he thought of the implications of his requests. Danny only hoped that Tucker would not put it together the same way he did. Taking the time to think it through, Danny worded the question honestly but without revealing too much. He buttered Tucker up too.

"Yeah," Tucker asked, knowing that this was probably the first step to really repairing his relationship with Danny. "Sure, what is it?"

Danny started, speaking slowly and lowly so that no one would hear him in the hallway, "I know you're a great computer whiz and a better hacker, so I have a job for you. I'll pay you for it too…"

"Pay me?" Tucker asked surprised by the offer and a bit dismayed that Danny was still dealing with him in collegial terms rather than friendly one, "You don't have to do that."

"Well, you don't know what the ask is yet. Could you get me Dash's internet history?" Danny asked.

"What?" Tucker asked. Then he thought of what Danny could possibly want, "You don't think he's cheating on you, do you?"

"What?" Danny asked, "No, no, no. It's nothing like that?"

"Then what is it?" Tucker asked.

"It's his birthday next week and I just want to make sure that I got the right sort of present in mind." Danny said, half lying. There was a material good involved, but also a service. "If you could do it quickly..."

"Oh," Tucker said, not thinking on it any further. "And that's very easy to do, give me twenty minutes and I'll email it all to you."

"Thanks."

"Uh, Danny?" Tucker started as they walked to the cafeteria, to kill the forty-five minutes before he first bell rang for the day. "I don't usually like discussing this stuff at school, but nothing I say will give away any information."

"Sure," Danny shrugged, knowing they could speak freely because they were at the bottom of the totem pole anyway and what they said did not matter to the school. That fact, of course still worked very much to his advantage, tactically and socially "What's up? Nothing bad I hope."

"That's just it." Tucker started to explain, as he was working on Danny's request from his smartphone and PDA (yes, Tucker needed and demanded both). "Nothing has been up for the past few months. When Sam and I weren't you know , I realized that not even once did we have to drop anything for any ghost attacks. I mean maybe the Box Ghost a time or two, but we all he isn't a problem."

"I know, Tucker," Danny said as they walked into the cafeteria, now using initials to mask themselves a bit, and make people think they were talking about a cartoon rather than life and death "My dad's concerned about it too. Something is brewing in GZ (Ghost Zone). And whatever it is, we have to be prepared. Tomorrow, I want you and Sam at the place for training together with D(ash). I'm sure that you two have gotten rusty.

"Yeah," Tucker said, regretting it. "Is he any good at it, at least? He might be good at getting that ball in the endzone, but-"

"Yes he is," Danny said. "And I'm actually saying this objectively.I can show you the test scores. He uses some of his football skills. The strength, the speed, and the agility he has helps him with the physical forms and techniques with ghost fighting. And when it comes to the scientific and academic stuff he gets it. He says it's systematic and logical... just like football. Go figure."

"So he's passed all the tests?" Tucker asked.

"Yes." Danny answered, quite pleased with the whole situation, "Flying colors."

"In this short amount of time? Tucker asked surprised, "I'm impressed… well more impressed. I was speechless when he started speaking a couple of different languages the other day."

"Can't judge a book by its cover," Danny said.

"Who you telling?" Tucker asked. "Well, I'm not going to reveal too much, but Sam's a different story from the cover, if you catch my drift. When it comes down to business, she's not a goth any more, but a real girly girl." Tucker shrugged, "I'm not saying this right, but I guess when people are at their most vulnerable and intimate, all the pretense falls away…:

"Trust me, I understand that, in a romantic way. The cover has been changing on the outside though. In Sam's case, I mean." Danny noted, "Seems like she's getting rid of the goth thing. I only say that because last time she wasn't wearing the makeup, and her clothes are getting less extreme. I actually saw some pink on her that wasn't compulsory from her parents. I'm not going to say that she's going to turn into a housewife, or a- but she has been becoming more 'normal', I guess."

"Well, Danny," Tucker started, "she told me the whole thing felt like an act after you helped us with our little crisis, or I guess crises . She said goth was all about cool detachment for her. She could step out of her life and let everything wash over her, so that she didn't have to feel anything. But now, with all that had happened to us, she didn't have the choice not to feel anythin-"

"And I didn't like feeling anything so strongly either." Sam almost by magic appeared by them and sat down next to Tucker. Danny shuddered, surprised that she could sneak up on him, but relaxed as he listened to her, "Or at least I didn't know what to do with the emotions. When you shut yourself off for so long, the tiniest drop out of the faucet feels like a fucking flood. So, when I was mad at you, I was panicking inside because I really didn't know what to do with what I felt. So, I tried to yell it away, exercise it away, sex it away. I tried anything I could to make it go away."

"A none of that works." Danny said. "I've learned and I guess Dash has taught me in a certain way that you have to just let yourself feel the emotions because you'll always come through fine on the other side. Even if the feeling is hell to go through. It's funny, but I think I taught him that too. He's understanding the strength in yielding to his emotions and mastering them."

"Well, I'm sorry," Sam finally said it unreservedly, "I was a bitch and an ass."

"It's fine, Sam." Danny said, "Water under the bridge."

"Thank you." Sam finally seemed to get back to normal.

Danny started again to clue her into what she missed "Tucker and I were discussing that we need to get the two of you back into training. I'm sure that the skills are just like riding a bicycle. You might get rusty, but you'll never forget completely. Dash has almost finished up and I think he'll make a good addition to the team. If and when the next emergency happens, all the ghosts see four when they used to see three."

"I have to admit this." Sam started. "I'm starting to like him a bit. He's not the complete asshole that he let on all those years. And he's smart too."

"I don't associate with stupid people." Danny chuckled.

"And I trust your judgment." Tucker added.

"So…" Danny started and turned to Tucker. "How's that going over there?"

"Easier than I thought it would be." Tucker said, "I have his bookmarks here. I'm not looking at any of it. I'm just sending it as a folder. And here comes the internet history. The most recent clicks are at the top of the list. Here's the bookmarks…" Tucker was attaching the documents to the email, "And here's the internet history."

"What are you talking about?"

"Tucker is just helping me with my plan to get Dash the perfect birthday present."

"When is his birthday?" Sam asked.

"The tenth, next Friday, so I have to plan something big for him."

"Well," Sam started, "He's a 'meat and potatoes' sort of guy. So get something simple for him. Maybe a signed football. What's his favorite team?"

"His parents have that covered already with the football related present for Christmas probably." Danny said. "He already overheard them talking about it."

"Well," Sam said aloud, "Whatever you have in mind… I'm sure he'll love it."

* * *

"I'll be fine, mom." Dash hugged his mother that Sunday evening, November 5th, as his parents were standing on the doorstep. She was reaching up to squeeze him and kiss him like this was the last time she would see him. He knew that they would come back as they always did. Considering how he felt about his parents and how they would feel about him if they knew what he'd get up to in their absence, any time spent away from them was time well spent. He loved them, but the affection sprang from duty, not true feeling.

"It's just that we don't usually go away for this long. And we don't usually go this far away."

"The boy will be fine." His father said. "Besides it's gonna be his birthday on Friday. The last thing the boy wants is for his folks to be in town while he's celebrating it. Isn't it, Dash?"

Dash had to nod in agreement, "I'll be fine, mom."

"You promise that you're not upset?" His mom asked him.

"No," Dash answered earnestly, "I'm not upset. I'll see you in a few weeks. Enjoy England."

"Well she will, but I'll be trapped in that damn city, driving on the wrong side of the road listening to all those fruity, stuck-up, condescending-"

"Don't blow a gasket, Dad." Dash made a calming gesture with his hands, "We don't want you dropping dead right now." (Let's be honest. That statement was only half true. Which half, I leave to your discernment.)

"I'll try not to son, but the fact that I might get held over there for Thanksgiving and miss…" His voice started to grow tense and bitter. "I wanna be home and have a fucking turkey leg. Is that too much to fucking ask? That an American be home for a major holiday?"

"Charles," his mother grabbed her husband's arm. "Don't worry about it." She turned her attention back to her son, "And I'll make sure to take all the pictures I can while I'm in Belgium."

"Just not that Manneken Pis thing. I don't understand why that's considered art. It's just gross, ick . All the Flemish primitives and the mountains and all the cool stuff only. Mom." Dash said. "And stay away from the dikes, Mom." Dash made a joke.

"Fine." She said, chuckling at his joke and giving him a hug. "I will. We'll be back in a few weeks. Make sure the house doesn't burn down. And no parties. And no girls over. And don't forget to wear protection." She squeezed him tightly as she always did before she left.

"Don't worry," his father assured her, "He's a Baxter. He knows what to do when the time comes. Come one, we don't want to miss our flight . That's not a short drive to Chicago. Come, Mom, I'll be fine. Have a good time and come back in one piece."

...

Meanwhile, across town, Danny had finally gotten enough time alone to sit and examine Dash's internet history. The house was empty. His parents were out on another. ghost expedition, Jazz was out with Kwan at a museum exhibition about postmodern Soviet artistic esoterica, whatever that meant. It left him with enough time and space to look through it all, link by link, click by ever-quickening click.

Danny was thoroughly pleased to find that Dash's bookmarks, and history-including the so called incognito mode-befitted that of a normal gay teen. In other words it was porn… porn… porn.

And did I mention the porn.

Danny could deduce from the collection that the computer he used was his and his alone. That would be the only reason Dash would be comfortable enough to use leave the evidence so clearly open. Danny wouldn't be surprised if Dash had… well… a Dash Stash. From what Danny could see in the listings, he could get a great understanding of what, besides him of course, got his boyfriend hot and bothered. He was thankful that what he needed to but to turn Dash's head was cheap. In fact, Danny was going to purchase multiple items of this sort in a vast array of colors and shapes. Then, Danny looked at and examined thoroughly the positions Dash favored from the videos he perused every afternoon they were not together.

"Ooh," Danny said, taking a mental note of a folder that Dash had in his bookmarks labeled "FF". Danny was absolutely delighted to find this folder and did a little shimmy when the initials he thought up turned out to be true. "Looks like we have another thing in common. No wonder you liked what happened in that restaurant, sexy." Danny then proceeded to look down at the correct area of his body. He took care of his entire body, so the correct place(s) was in proper shape.

Another folder called "J&T". It had the most links in it by far from all sorts of competing sites, all mainstream and recognizable as hubs for porn and repositories of X(rated) videos. It was filled up with people who resembled the two of them. A blond jock and a brunette or black-haired twink in a sort of athletic setting, a gym, a locker room, a sauna or an occasional bedroom or bathroom. In about eighty percent of the videos, the blond jock was the top and fucked the twink with 'moderate' to 'rough' thrusting action with rhythmic grinding on the part of the receptive partner. (Again, Danny was being scientific, measuring the rhythm of the stoke, the torque of the action, et cetera.) The other twenty percent involved the jock taking it from the twink character and getting up to the same activity. It all followed the same formula: a terribly written and acted out dialogue, the initial peck on the lips which turned into French kissing, then the bottom would rub the top's bulge, kneel, and get to work. Those acts would continue for a ridiculous amount of time through the use of camera tricks, splicing, and talent. Then, the salami being properly greased, it would be inserted into the appropriate place. Sometimes there would be some 69ing or disgust insertion to prepare the boipussy, prison pocket, or whatever you like to call it ;).

Again, that special twenty percent where the one like him was doing the work intrigued Danny and whetted his appetite. That made Danny wonder if one out of every five times they got together, he would be taking the lead. He had always thought of himself as only wanting to be the passive partner, but he could see the advantages in reversing every once in a while. Reminiscing over their conversations, especially the spicy ones, Danny did remember that Dash had, even if fleetingly, referenced being underneath Danny. It surprised Danny that such a muscular guy would even come close to desiring that, but all that meant was that Dash was really, really gay. The sex would not be about power as much as it was about love and pleasure and connectedness. Simply put, Dash needed a man to pleasure him; a woman couldn't do that.

Another folder was labeled "SB". And from this folder, it appeared that Dash had methodically found just about every brunette and black-haired smooth eighteen year old he could find. And they were all getting up to naughtiness all by themselves. Some only had their hands, some had some toys at their disposal, other's too had toys that were controlled by people's donations. In a few, they had a helping hand from-you guessed it- a blond jock giving a helping hand. All of them were amateurs, and Danny could see a piece in himself in each of them. Dash had a type, and Danny fit the bill.

* * *

On Tuesday morning, Danny looked all over and finally found Kwan alone by his locker. Danny was a bit relieved because Kwan was the last person with whom he needed to speak. For Danny's plan to work, he would need Kwan to do a little distracting on Thursday evening. The jock was looking into his locker, so he did not see Danny approaching the

"Uh, Kwan." Danny tapped the jock's shoulder.

"Oh," Kwan turned around, "Hey, what's up?"

"I'm fine," Kwan said turning and leaning on the lockers. "Is there something wrong? Is Jazz o-."

"No, no, no, Kwan, she's fine." Danny answered. "And she's happy with you which makes me very happy."

"So," Kwan started politely. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you have anything planned for Dash on Thursday night? He's lucky. He gets his birthday off as the first day in a three day weekend. So I want to surprise him at midnight at his house.

"Well," Kwan began, shrugging, "I was going to take him to Hooters."

"Hooters?" Danny's nose scrunched up his nose. "Why there?"

"Honestly." Kwan shrugged and said, "He likes the wings. He couldn't care less about the main attraction of that place, the reason I would go to that place. He could be served by robots for all he cared, so long as he gets the wings. And he gets plenty of things on the side because the girls are so attracted to him."

"Fair enough." Danny said, putting some fears to rest, "So do you think you can arrange it for Dash to get back to his place at say 12:00 or 12:15."

"That's doable," Kwan said, "And I won't tell him. I'll just insist that we go out later than I originally planned.

"Thanks." Danny said, and started walking away, "I appreciate the help."

"Wait." Kwan thought of something.

Danny turned around and went back, "What is it?"

"Well," Kwan said looking around. "I was thinking. My family is going on a ski trip over the Christmas break. I talked it over with my parents, and they think it's okay for your sister to come."

"Great." Danny answered. "Have fun."

"Well that's just it." Kwan said, "Would she like skiing, and do you think your parents would let her go on a trip?"

"Yes to the first one." Danny started, "She just as athletic as she is smart."

"Yeah…" Kwan said dreamily as her face appeared in his imagination. Then her nude 'athleticism' came to his mind for a bit, not that he had ever seen it. (She was to modest for him to have seen so soon.) Then he snapped out of it when he realized he was talking to her brother. Kwan was talked and more muscular than he, but the jock suspected that Danny could probably kick his ass. Kwan did not know what exactly gave him that impression, but he knew anyone who could tame Dash probably possessed more power than he cared to ponder. So, to put everything right, Kwan stood up, cleared his throat and asked. "How about the second part?"

"That would be up to my mother." Danny answered. "Jazz already told me that my Dad ghost tested you."

"Don't worry about it. The bruises are gone." Kwan answered, scratching the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry about that." Danny grimaced.

"How'd you manage to get Dash out of being 'examined'?"

"Well, I told my Dad that he had already been 'put to question' so to speak. I made up some results, and Dad cleared him no problem. You were too bold, trying to actually be a man and go to the door." Danny chuckled.

"Fine." Kwan laughed it off, "But I was taught honesty was the best policy, and being dishonest and sneaking around is wrong. I guess now I have some battle scars for my principles."

"Women are supposed to like battle scars. And my sister would appreciate the principled ones. I know they don't hurt any less, but the knowledge of that should…"

"Help." Kwan finished. "I guess it does help." Changing subject, Kwan continued, "So what is this surprise you're planning for my friend?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Danny lied because it was the opposite of nothing for him.

"Gotcha." Kwan seemed to get it, so he bent to Danny's ear and whispered into it, "Just… and I know this sounds terrible, but make sure he feels like he's not forcing you. He still feels a sense of guilt about the way the two of you used to be, homoeroticism and all." Kwan backed up and spoke more freely, "He doesn't ever want to feel like he's taking something."

"I understand." Danny nodded in agreement. "And the way I have it planned out in my mind, he'll know it's a gift. I will be giving him something special."

"And another thing," Kwan whispered again to him, "And I do love him as my brother and friend, but can you find a way to get him to not talk about you two so much. I mean, I know he wants people to know about it and how happy he truly is, but I also know that you want some discretion too."

"Of course." Danny answered agreeing, reveling privately in the fact that he was the center of Dash's world.

"But there's only so much I guy wants to hear about a friend's relationships, especially a straight guy like me. It's not that it's you two, but if I hear your name said all dreamily-like again, I'm gonna scream."

"Fair enough," Danny said, still chuckling.

"You think you might be able to find him some gay guys to discuss this with?" Kwan continued. "Then he'll have someone who can discuss all the details without you know…"

"That's called competition, Kwan." Danny laughed, be he was serious. "And I don't know if Dash told you, but I…"

"Well all the Fenton's have a fiery fierceness to them." Kwan backed up, "I haven't said anything stupid yet to Jazz, but I've come close. And when I may be going astray, she sends that look that could sink a fleet of ships."

"I have one piece of advice. My sister is slow to anger. She is patient, loving, empathetic, and kind, but when you puss her off, oh my God. Just find shelter and wait for the storm to subside. I can also say that she can't get angry with you. She likes you a lot."

"I like her a lot too." Kwan answered.

"So she'd love to go skiing or anything with you. You should come to my house and meet my mother. Let's our parents talk to each other, and I'm sure my mother would permit it. And my mom can keep a secret."

"Thanks." Kwan said, "And Danny?"

"Yeah?"

Kwan whispered a final time. "Have fun on Friday. I know he will."

"Thanks." Danny only managed to blush as he walked away.


	30. Thirty

This chapter is NSFW. Enjoy!

* * *

Danny was nervous when Thursday, November 9th dawned bright, clear and bitingly cold. The air was not only cold but the air had a heavy wetness too, and anyone from the north would know that snow, and a lot of it, was coming. Danny could tell that it was still a few days off, but it did not matter. He was full of a strange, awesome vitality that made every part of him feel new, ready, and adult. He had been to the sports good store to purchase the necessary materials in the aforementioned variety of colors and shapes. He was trying to hold his nerve because he was going to have to tell a few white lies to Dash to get his plan to work as he wanted. He was hoping that he could avoid coming into to contact with Dash to obviate the fibs, but when Danny planned, whoever was in charge laughed. It did not help that Dash could narrowcast questions and thoughts to him while they sat in all of their classes too close to each other.

Danny was ready to give Dash his gift after these few months of dating. Dash deserved it, and Danny had finally managed to convince himself that he deserved it too. He had conquered a certain fear, through going out with Dash and truly knowing that he was a delightful person to be with. So Danny let all of his fears drift away. With the fear gone, a mightier emotion indeed filled the void. They call it love, and Danny began to comprehend it in the last way a man learned, romantically. He found himself whispering Dash's name to himself, whenever he was in desperation and want. Dash seemed to be the answer to any of his troubles.

Romance itself did not require sex, of course, but acts of physical passion were more than simple ornamentation to romance. Sex made the relationship deeper because, if it were done with actual tender feeling, the romance was given another complex layer. Danny was convinced that the romance had a good foundation in shared passions, secrets, and affection. Danny was ready to build upon the foundation because he was assured beyond all doubt that the relationship he wanted was being constructed on solid rock, not sand. Dash had, himself, been a rock upon which Danny could depend. No matter what storm seemed to come his way, Dash was there joyfully withstanding it with him and giving a great degree of shelter. Though he loved Sam and Tucker dearly, he could only think of them, at least until they could prove otherwise, as fairweather friends.

Sure, Tucker had helped him with his quest, and Sam had given her long overdue outward approval of Danny's relationship (as if it mattered). But he could not, would not forget that they whipped up a great storm in their friendship. He could not, would not forget that when the winds that they had whipped up started to buffet them too, how they ran for cover. Dash had been the silver lining in the clouds, and then he became the bright, brilliant sunlight that made a rainbow after the storm. And the symbolism (in its modern, non-biblical, lgbt context) of a rainbow was not lost on Danny either. He would not be walking in a pride parade, ever (not that Amity Park had one or was going to any time soon), but he would be proud of the relationship he had worked to hard to build and sustain. He would be proud that of all of the people in the school, in the town, and in the country, he, Danny Fenton was the one to snag Dash as his own. He was even prouder that Dash reciprocated that same loving yearning. Who he loved and had sex with was immaterial to what mattered to him, and what mattered was the love. The love itself was driving Danny into places he had never known existed in him, let alone explored. Well, he would explore those formerly darkened with Dash's sunshine. No wonder Dash was blond.

Maybe that was also why Danny was black haired. The heat of the day always chased away cold night, and anywhere light went, darkness fled. Danny was not saying that Dash would bang him blond, but he knew that their contrasting yet complementary natures meant something. Danny simply saw himself as the night, the only night, that could cool the heat of Dash's sunshine. When Danny was quiet, even Dash's physicality spoke and said much. Where Dash was always to be seen, Danny blended very nicely into the crowd. So well, in fact, that only Dash could find him in a crowd of a thousand, a million, or a thousand million, but that was supernatural at this point. Dash was tall, where Danny could fit squarely into his locker.

But, at the same time they matched. They fit together like a hand and glove. They both saw marvelously blue oceans when they looked into each other's eyes. They both tasted sweet mint when they made out. They felt the same gentle warmth shared a bed, and Danny thought that it would turn into a fiery furnace when he gave his greatest gift to Dash later that night. They also had a way of knowing what the other was thinking without having to get all telekinetic. They just seem, all around, to be on the same wavelength.

Those thoughts washed over him and kept him warm in the drafty old school. And they distracted him as he walked into his first class of the day, English with Mister Lancer. Danny had done his homework and handed it in, and he settled into the usual boredom as Lancer lectured about the importance and theme of duality in _The Scarlet Letter._ It can be said without a doubt that Danny's mind was not likely to turn to the fictional plight of Hester Prynne. THe only parallel he saw was that he would be condemned by his puritanical parent for being a ghost, and possibly for being gay. Dash's parents would probably do more than make him wear a rainbow "G" on his chest. They would probably ruin him, especially now that Dash was getting attention from scouts. Playing on a team called the Casper Ravens was not exactly the end goal.

But Dash was starting to take Danny's advice to have something to fall back on and invested the time into his subjects. Lancer was impressed that Dash's marks had improved, and furthermore, that Dash actually had a good mind. In Dash's brain existed a great vocabulary, imagination, and sensitivity/ It came through more and more when Dash wrote. When the theme was "What Does Language Mean to You?", Dash wrote with an eloquent style that blended a light airy feel, an efficient crispness, and a down to earth sensibility that made the English teacher look to see if he had plagiarized. When no proof was found, Lancer gave him an "A". In the following papers, Lancer looked and saw that the style was the same and matched no other person in any of his classes. Deeply confused, he even made his students in that class write an essay during one of the double periods. Lo and behold, Dash was still writing like a king. Lancer did not know who or what sparked the change in Dash, but he was grateful for it. Even as he looked out at his pupils during his exposition of duality or 'doubleness', Dash looked like the model of attentiveness and discipline. Little did the bald man know that Dash and the student who sat right in front of him, Danny, were having a very important conversation.

 _"So, Danny,"_ Dash had started, while he kept his eyes on Mister Lancer, _"I'm sure you remember that tomorrow's my birthday."_

 _"Trust me."_ Danny started, _"I remember, but…"_

 _"What?"_ Dash got worried instantly. _"The word 'but' is never a good thing unless we're talking about yours."_

 _"There's a slight problem."_ Danny had to will himself not to reply all horny-like to that last remark.

 _"No, don't say it."_ Dash sounded in thought, like his heart was being broken in front of the world.

 _"Yes, I'm sorry"_ Danny answered, _"My father saw how this was a three day weekend, and he says that he wants me to do some housekeeping in the lab this weekend. Cleaning, labeling, storing, and testing the equipment."_

 _"Well, how long does it take? Can't you do it on Saturday and Sunday? I mean come on, he should at least let you sleep in on your Friday off. Does it really take three days to sort all that stuff out down there? It looked very organized when you and I were down there together."_

Danny hated lying, but lie for now he had to for the sake of the surprise, _"It was, but my father...bless him... he's a genius, but organization is the one skill he doesn't have. He's the worst at making a mess, and he knows that if he tried to clean it himself, he'd end up burning the house and the lab down to the ground."_

 _"Can't your sister help him?"_ Dash's thoughts conveyed disappointment in a way his thoughts never ever could.

 _"It's my turn."_ Danny said. _"Trust me, I tried to get ditch it."_

 _"Dammit, dammit, dammit."_

 _"If I can get out of it early or sneak out for a few hours, I will. I might make him a nice big sandwich and put him to sleep."_ Danny laughed to himself.

 _"Well, please try."_ Dash responded, trying his best not to cry in class, _"Because all I want for my birthday is to be with you. Even if it's just for a little while."_ And with that, Dash shed a single tear. Danny could not see it, and nobody else in the class realized it except for Lancer, who was in the peroration of his lecture and thought that he had so moved Dash with his discourse that he made the teen cry. To Lancer, it looked as if he had severely misjudged Dash's sensitivity and intellect. That was true, but Lancer had nothing to do with the display of emotion he saw.

 _"I'll do my best, Dash."_ Danny said, being in front of him and not being able to see his boyfriend's reaction to the heartbreaking news was probably best. _"I might be able to clean it up using my ghost speed before Dad notices it. Then it would be clean and he doesn't really care how it gets done. And instead of a few days, I can do a good enough job in forty-five minutes. But again, I don't know if it'll be possible. I'll try, I promise."_

 _"Thanks, Danny. I hope you don't think I'm being too clingy about this. It's just that most of the opportunities we have to be together get interrupted, and I guess I'm kinda jealous of those people deep down. But I want to be with you more than I can put into words. And this telepathic way isn't enough. I ain't complaining. I know we have a complicated relationship with other types of overtones going on. "_

 _"I know."_ Danny commiserated with him because they were in the same boat, _"But as soon as I can make it really possible for you and I to be together, no interruptions, I will do it."_ Little did Dash know that Danny had planned it to be this weekend.

 _"Ooh, I can't wait. Hopefully, you can do it while my parents are out of the country."_ Dash added, feeling relieved and hopeful, _"I'll be able to host you the same way you hosted me last month. Maybe we'll be more intimate than we already were."_

 _"I can't wait for that to happen, and I'm ready for it."_ Danny thought sensuous things, and the tone cane across, even through thought. The next part was more explicit _"I'm not scared about it anymore. And I'm honry as fuck. I need some dick in my mouth and ass soon."_

 _"Why are you talking like this?"_ Dash asked, his face contorted in a mix of arousal and embarrassment, _"I thought that we agreed not to seduce each other in class or in school or in public!"_

 _"What'd I do?"_ Danny asked, honestly not knowing what he could have said. He could not think of what in those last few sentences would have whipped his boyfriend into frothy arousal.

 _"When the sexiest guy on Earth tells you that he's ready to have sex with you, it makes you hard as fuck. Even in the abstract, the idea excites me. So you are breaking the rule and you owe me a blowjob, as per article two of out agreement. I'm now in full launch sequence down here because of you. So I want that blowjob soon."_

 _"Fine, but don't hold your breath, Dash."_ Danny said. _"Unless you want to get blown right here in the classroom. That might attract a bit of attention thought. I make a lot of noise and I'm sloppy at it, so…"_

 _"You'll be the one who has to hold his breath."_ Dash joked.

…

When the class ended, Lancer dismissed them and was merciful, giving them no homework for the long weekend. Dash was ready to go to his next period, Study Hall, but Lancer stopped him and asked him to stay for a few minutes. The teacher was cutting into his own preparation period for his unruly fourth period class, but he felt compelled to speak to the young man, so he did. Very rarely did Eugene Lancer feel any sense of nerves when he spoke to students, but this time he did. Something overcame the teacher that made him realize that Dash was growing into a man. Lancer knew that it happened over time in most people, but for Dash it seemed instant. One moment, it seemed, Dash was an immature jockish bully whose best class would have to be physical education, the next moment, at the blink of an eye, Dash seemed thoughtful, artful, and mature.

 _"I just have to figure this out,"_ Lancer thought to himself. _"I simply must figure this out."_

Of course, we all know that Dash heard those thoughts, but he did not know their context. _"Figure what out?"_ Dash asked himself, feeling very self-conscious, but not letting it show. Dash's mind turned to maybe Lancer trying to figure out his sexuality, thinking that somehow, someway Lancer figured out that he was gay or that he was on the road to figuring it out. Dash sat in a desk at the front of the room. And watched as the English teacher leaned on the front of his desk.

"Dash." Lancer started.

"Yes, sir."

"I have noticed, and some of the other teachers have noticed, that you've been doing better in all of your classes." Lancer said, "And I know that it may seem silly to you to pull you aside for this, but I just wanted to know what are you doing to improve yourself."

"Well, sir," Dash started, "I just started to take this more seriously. Someone important to me made me realize that that I needed to take more care in the things I'm doing. I needed to pay more attention in school, so I have. And I guess, Mister Lancer, now that I've done this for myself, I know that I deserve it."

"But Dash?" Lancer started, "And I mean this sincerely. The change as instant, almost supernatural. Your writing style, your grammar and syntax improved to college senior level almost overnight. I thought that you were… Well never mind." Lancer paused, "Your essay on what the English language meant to you was so good that I have to ask you if we can keep a copy of it to put in the English department's file of sample essays."

"What do you mean?" Dash asked thoroughly confused by what was going on. "I mean that easy wasn't so great."

"I have been teaching for thirty-two years young man and it is the best thing I've ever read from a student. I would actually want to submit this as a letter to the editor. I want you to think about this… remember the spiel I give on the first day of every school year?"

"Yes." Dash answered. "It will always be in my mind."

"So you remember how I tell students not to hold their breath expecting to get anything better than an 'A-'? And you remember that I tell the class that in my whole career I've have only given 5 A's and no A+'s."

"Yes." Dash did remember the lecture.

"Well, I didn't want to show you this in front of the class just yet…" Lancer walked over to the case where he kept all of the work he had graded. "Congratulations, Dash Baxter, you've received the first A+ that I have ever given." Lancer handed Dash the paper back. Dash looked all throughout it and saw the red dots where Lancer rested the ballpoint of the pen.

"Thank you." Dash answered, "You can make a copy if you want, but don't tell anyone in this class that I did this."

"Why not?" The teacher was perplexed by the request. Most students in this position would have plastered copies of the paper everywhere in the school like a victory. The man was reduced to scratching his head as he tried to figure out why anyone could

"I have a reputation to protect, Mister Lancer." Dash explained, "I can't have people thinking I changed over to the nerd team. I know it's a false dichotomy-" Dash paused for a second, not knowing when that word had entered his vocabulary or how he used it correctly. "All I am saying is that there are three groups in this school, the jocks, like me, the rich kids, the modern sort of debutants, and the cool kids are one group. The second contingent is the biggest, consisting of the kids who are neither particularly cool nor particular dorky: the regulars. The third group are the 'victims', and in this upside down school they are the brightest kids and the ones who can't defend themselves. They are beaten up, yelled at, and shoved around."

"I know it, Dash," Lancer answered, "I see it everyday."

"And if you make this a big deal in front of the class, I might just crash out of the top group and crash right to the bottom." Dash answered. "I'm already in a uncomfortable position. I've broken off engagements to hang out to study instead, and I didn't go to the dance a couple of weeks ago. I have to be careful no to rock the boat, and if it gets out that I've gotten an A+ from you of all teachers... You understand me."

The teacher frowned because he did indeed understand the strange and savage society that took place in the high school. He spoke to get rid of his guilt in doing nothing about it (not that he could) , and he spoke to give Dash reassurance, no matter how weak, that he could trust his teacher and himself, "You're built like a tank, young man." Lancer answered. "No one would mess with you, but I understand what you're saying. I won't put your name on the sample essay, but you've given me permission to copy and keep it."

Dash handed it back, "Yes, if it can help anyone."

"Well, thank you." Lancer answered.

"Is that all you needed, I have a science test this afternoon." Dash answered.

Dash left the room and Lancer looked at the paper then back to the empty room. He had achieved nothing in their conversation. Dash was maturing and that seemed to be the entire story. It was atypical to see someone change so much in such a short amount of time, but that was all it was in Dash's case. Lancer had been looking for something, but there was no there there. Much to his credit, Lancer was the type of man to quit while he was ahead and shrug things off as unknowable. This would have to be one of those instances where no amount of thinking would make it make sense for him. Letting the thoughts pass away, Mister Lancer looked out of the window and watched as the sky was starting to cloud up a bit. Lancer could tell that he would need to stop in the supermarket after school to stock up on some food.

* * *

It was just past five in the afternoon, and Danny was in his bedroom packing some bags for his surprise sleepover with Dash. He anticipated being over for the weekend at most, but if he was being honest, Danny wasn't planning to be wearing too much most of the time anyway, so he packed a few things that were for Dash's and his carnal amusements. Whatever the case, Danny did some serious (invisible) flying in the last week. Since he could go many miles in a short amount of time, he was able to fly out of the state to get some things. He paid in cash to leave no trail of the purchase. He would put the items in his book bag, find a good place to turn invisible without being captured on camera, and fly home, arriving with a few moments to spare before dinner.

Before you get carried away, Danny was mostly visiting sports goods and athletic stores where he could find exactly what he needed for Dash's eyes. Some of the stores were high end and located in the cities. He would attract looks from the cashiers who heard and derided his midwestern accent. Danny had needed some help to find the items in the right size, but being 1,500 miles from home and knowing that word would never get back to his little city, he would level with the people and ask what size accommodated his dimensions best. Danny knew that he was well endowed, so he to lengths to find the things that would fit both his big dick and his small waist. He would have been contented just for the look, but after he tried one of the unnamed articles of clothing on and looked in the mirror he could understand why people wore them and liked to look at them. The sales representative liked Danny's appearance so much that he tried to hook up with him after the sale was done, but our favorite hero politely declined. When Danny got home, he did find the sales rep's cell phone number and instagram name on the back of the receipt. He promptly burned the little slip of paper Danny liked it, the article of clothing, so much that he took to wearing them everyday and was wearing one as he packed his bag. Soon, very soon, Dash would be acquainted with it.

Danny was going through the checklist he had written out for the things he needed. Most of the objects were mundane: toothbrush, bath brush, deodorant, and the like. Some were rather risque. He packed those things first when the house was empty because he would not be able to explain how he came into possession of those objects. Then he packed the regular clothes he would wear when lounging around the house with Dash and getting into his hot tub and sauna. Danny had never used either, so he was excited to see if they were as relaxing as everyone claimed. Danny knew that he could use some relaxation time. Then, he packed the special abbreviated garb for Dash's arousal and their accessories on the top. Luckily for him, they were well within the realm of normal, so if someone walked in on Danny's packing, they would shrug.

Danny was also lucky that he did not get any homework for the weekend. All of the teachers had basically confessed that they also wanted to enjoy their three day weekends and not come back to work with multiple stacks of paper to grade. So, Danny left his bookbag in his room, and if he needed something from it, he could just make a quick flight home to get what he desired. He already let his parents know that he was staying with Dash. His father was thrilled that his son had finally found a partner, a ghost hunting partner that is. His mother nodded and told him to stay safe with the usual motherly concern. She knew that it was unfounded because she got the feeling that Dash would take a bullet for Danny. She also got the feeling that Dash would take something _from_ Danny, but _that_ was much bigger than a bullet

Danny had finished packing and rechecking everything by seven, so he had a few hours to kill before he could put his plan into action. He decided to take a nap to make sure that he was ready and energized. It took over fiber of his being pulling in the same direction not to fly over to Dash's house and end the charade, but he still wanted to have the surprise, to be the surprise. Right before he was about to shut his eyes and drift off into (wet) dreamland, he heard a gentle knock at the door.

Still in his pajamas, he sat up for and walked to the door, stretching out as he made his way. He knew it was Jazz because she was the only one who have the decency and presence of mind to knock on the door. He opened and confirmed that it was indeed his sister.

"Hey," he said reading the look on her face, "What's up? Is something the matter?"

"May I come in? I don't think either one of us wants Mom and Dad to overhear this." She has her arms crossed, but he could tell that she was not angry or put off, but merely worried as was her wont. He knew that it would be best to acquiesce and mitigate whatever worry was presently gnawing at her conscience.

She entered, wearing a freshly concerned look on her face. Her look, except for when she was with Kwan, was either worried, concerned, or inquisitive. This expression was a mixture of the last two. Those feelings, at the very least in her case, were easily managed by Danny's reassurances. He had learned how to ease his sister's mental agonies from young, so he knew that he would have to do it this one last time for the week.

He did miss this time that her look was almost as curious as it was concerned, and nothing in the world could have give him adequate preparation for the conversation he was about to have. She sat at the corner of his bed and immediately eyed the suitcase he put in the corner. It was zipped up, so she put any thoughts of seeing what he had packed clear out of her head. It served as confirmation for her theory of what was about to go down. So she looked at him as she gripped the plastic pharmacy bag that she had. She too had driven far away from the town to buy what she had in the bag, but it was for Danny.

Her little brother took his place on the bed next to her and did not see the bag, so again, he was thrown for a look when she started.

"So," She started awkwardly, "You have any plans for the weekend?"

"Huh?" He was thrown by that question, but then he answered honestly, "Yeah, I'm staying over at Dash's. We're gonna celebrate his birthday together. His folks are out of town, so I figured that he and I could get together. He has a spare room, so I packed up and I'll be back on Sunday night to go to school from home on Monday morning."

"You talked to Mom and Dad about it?" Jazz asked. "You know they would have a fit if you didn't."

"Yeah. I've gotten their permission and everything." Danny answered honestly. "I told them and they were fine."

"So look Danny… I talked to Kwan about it and he seemed to think that you and Dash were going to…" Jazz couldn't bring herself to say it.

Danny honestly did not know where she was going. "Oh yeah. Kwan is going out with him tonight to celebrate. They're going to-"

"Hooters." She answered. "I know. He was all nervous when he asked me if he could go. He promised me that he woul

"What'd you say?" Danny asked, surprised that she would be liberal enough to let him go to a place like that. It turned out that she wasn't the jealous type.

"Oh, I told him to buy me some wings." She answered, shrugging it off. "You know how much I love cold chicken wings. I'm not worried about some girls wearing tight tees serving him wings and cokes. I trust him completely. Next time we'll go together. And you're less worried."

"Of course." Danny shrugged, "He ain't interested in women. I hope there aren't any gay wings restaurants out there. We'd have to go together."

Jazz chuckled and made a mental note of that good idea, a gay Hooters©. (Maybe it would be called "Gayters" and have an alligator as its mascot. Let me know if you'd go.) She continued, "But he's interested in you. And you're interested in him and Kwan told me that you wanted to surprise him for his birthday."

"Oh." Danny saw where the conversation was headed.

"I had a few ideas that I thought about. I said to myself, 'What would Danny want to give him for his birthday?' Then, when Kwan told me the nature of how you wanted to surprise him, I realized that you probably wouldn't be getting him a gift from a store…" She stopped, not knowing how to continue.

"Oh?" Danny asked, feigning ignorance. He was in no position to stop this trainwreck, so he rolled with it.

"So I kept thinking and I remembered the conversations we've had over the last month. And I remembered how into him you are, so I was thinking…" Feeling the awkwardness and tension well up in her and the conversation, she paused again.

"What?" He asked again, using put upon innocence, "What were you thinking?"

She coughed a little bit, "I was thinking, since all guys I know, straight, gay and in between all think with something other than their brains… It's like you guys hit puberty and need sex to live or something… It's almost as if ejeculating is nore important than breathing to you men... But I digress… I was thinking...

"Yes." Even Danny was getting tired of this back and forth. Though he knew that she was trying to bring something to the limelight that he would have rather kept obscure, her uncharacteristic hesitance made him feel a little bad for her.

"I must ask it: Are you planning on having sex with him tonight? Or tomorrow? Or this weekend" Jazz managed to get the words out. "I'm not judging, just asking. It's your body and it's your rules. And I'm not trying to make you feel any way about doing what you like in your own life. I'm not going to preach at you, no matter what the answer. I just wanted to talk to you about it. You don't even have to answer the question of you don't want to. It's just that I would be most able to help you if something goes wrong if you let me know how serious you're getting in your relationship."

"Fine," Danny said, putting his hands up in defeat. He could not lie to her about this, especially now that he had been caught red-handed. "I'm caught. Guilty as charged. I;m not sure what the charge would be," Then his eyes narrowed and he squinted. If he wanted to use he looks to kill-and his could- she would have died a violent and awful death. His voice grew cold, steely, and gruff. "You're not going to try and stop me, are you? Because that would be a very bad idea, sister."

She was a bit jarred by the display, but she held her calm demeanor as she asked the necessary questions "I just want you to think about it is all. Do you really want this? Seriously consider what you're doing. Are you ready for this and is he? Are you really ready to give him the gift of your body, maybe your virginity to him? Do you think you deserve it- all the risk and baggage that comes with sex?" Her questions were the same ones he had been asking himself for as many weeks. He had answered all of them in that same order: He did _really, really_ want this. Danny was ready for it and so was Dash. He did deserve the pleasure and joy that came with sex and so did Dash. Moreover, Dash and he were mature enough and confident enough in themselves and each other to face the emotion baggage that came along with sex. The sex was based in love, not animalistic lust, not the mere male desire to ejaculate in a warm and waiting hole, but this was love, romantic, passionate love. He was as sure of all of those things as he was of his identity, the sun setting in the west, and his deep discomfort in this moment.

"Christ Himself couldn't stop me." Danny answered quickly.

"Fine." Jazz answered. "Well, I went to the store because I know that Mom and Dad might not have given you the talk about-"

Danny looked down at the bag in her hand from the pharmacy. His eyes widened and his cheeks went from a bit rosy to full tomato when he put two and two together. She had done the most extreme Jasminesque type of meddling that he had ever been involved in.

"No, you didn't…" Danny's voice shrunk in embarrassment as she handed the bag over to him. Big, bad, blaspheming Danny was gone and replaced with the embarrassed teenager that was the true Danny. "You didn't buy these for me…"

"Protection is important Danny. When you sleep with someone, you're sleeping with everyone they've ever slept with and I just want…"

By this point Danny had opened the bag and saw that she had purchased the brand known for men who were not exactly created equal and had extra endowment. In other words, she purchased some Trojans. Danny visibly squirmed as he saw the man with the helmet on the box. He quickly put the little package back into the plastic bag in a useless attempt to kick the image out of his head. This was just as uncomfortable as when he had to go back in time to fix Sam and Tucker's mess. Only this time, he had to experience the uncomfortability in his own skin and solidly in the present. He could only muster this as a question, and trust me, he regretted it the second it left his lips, "Why did you get them in this size?"

As promised she gave an answer that pushed him into full chill stage. "Well, Danny, we all know that the Fenton men are above average in intellect and in other," she squirmed visibly at the next details, "more physical aspects. I've had the less than comfortable experience of seeing you naked, you know, by accident over the years, so I know that these are the right size for you to protect yourself from whatever."

"First, both of us are virgins so we're free and clean. And luckily neither of us is going to be getting pregnant. Second, who says that I'm going to be the one, you know…"

"You mean to tell me Dash didn't get around you know at all as popular and handsome as he is?" Jazz was quite surprised.

"Think about it," Danny at least managed to bring the conversation to a slightly, _ever so slightly,_ less cringey area. "He can't go around dating any boy he wanted to, they'd crucify him in this town."

"Some people would. Most people would shrug it off. He doesn't wear his heart or, I guess, his rainbow on his sleeve, so most people, most of those die-hard fans would either ignore it or forget about it. You told me yourself that he wants to be thought of as the football star, not the gay football star."

"Most people, right. But the people he lives with would care a lot. They'd throw him out, and 'destitution' isn't even the word for what would happen to him."

"Fine, but I'm not taking those condoms back." Jazz said. "They're yours to keep if you two want to have an open relationship or whatnot." She shrugged, "You're an individual and so is he. I don't know what kind of relationship you have with all the different things you read about nowadays.

"No, we're going to be monogamous," Danny answered with certainty. "We're both way too jealous to let anyone into the relationship. Besides, tonight is going to be the first time for a lot of things, I think he would want to get to exploring everything he had only dreamt about."

"Good." She said, rising, "I'm glad that you've thought this out. I just needed to make sure because I don't want you… I just want us to avoid as many mistakes in life as we can. I feel the same way about Kwan as you feel about Dash."

"Does he pressure you?" Danny asked, ready to kill him if he had to.

"No, he's every inch a gentleman. It's just that… I guess whatever it is about being teenagers pressures the hell out of us to just let go and have sex as soon as we can put the mechanics of it together. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't doing the same thing. I mean you have it easy. You don't have to worry about STDs or getting knocked up. You only would have the emotions that come with it, which, by the way are hard to deal with if they're not good ones. I just wanted to make sure that you grasped the consequences. You gotta know how to swim before you jump into the deep end."

"I understand, Jazz." Danny shrugged, "And thank you. I'll let you know that I'm no longer doggy paddling. I'm comfortable with the backstroke." Something about the word "backstroke" made him blush, so he continued, " And you be careful with Kwan. Straight guys are supposed to be hornier than us because you women folk deny them so much."

"Danny," she chuckled, "The fact that he stuck around after the ghost testing incident means that he's not _just_ trying to sleep with me. We talk for hours about any and everything."

"Besides sex." Danny laughed, starting to get his revenge.

"He says that he'll leave that for me to bring up." Jazz answered. "He says rightly that the man bringing it up doesn't excite the woman, but the woman bringing it up is enough to drive him crazy. So, when I think we've gotten there, I will make sure he knows. He's not holding his breath, though. He knows that he hasn't even started up the garden path."

"Well for you," Danny answered, "Going up the garden path as you put it means that he needs to walk down the aisle."

"I'm not _that_ old-fashioned." Jazz took mood exception to that comment, but upon thinking about herself critically, "I guess I am, but if Kwan is really as interested in me as he shows, he'll understand and wait." She started walking towards the door. "But maybe one day I'll come out of my shell, who knows? I might be a nympho."

There was a brief silence before they broke out into laughter

"Well," Danny said, "I'm happy for you that you got yourself a nice one. And thank him again for helping me."

"I will." She said. "You'd better get some sleep for your big night." She tried once more, "are you sure you're ready for this, all of this?"

"Yes." Danny nodded, "Yes I am."

"Good." She answered. "I'll see you on Sunday night. But call me if you need anything."

"I will."

* * *

Eleven o'clock rolled around and Danny, after resting for a few hours, flew invisibly and intangible to Dash's house with his suitcase in hand. Danny was so excited that he did not realize that the temperature was hovering somewhere around twenty degrees Fahrenheit (about negative seven degrees Celsius). The air was heavy, wet, and cold, and the town was darkened by the thick clouds that hid the moon. In the farthest reaches of his hearing he heard muffled thunder, but that did not give him pause. Because he was flying anyway, the noise of the wind howling through the town also made no difference to him. He was flying through gale force winds, but nothing deterred him. He was on a mission, and this part of it required stealth. He was flying, so he had to be imperceptible by both the senses of sight and hearing. It was a short flight, only lasting about five minutes, but his convinced him that it took hours.

He landed in the living room and walked about the house with some familiarity. He turned on the lights and found the house immaculate and took special care to keep it this way. Danny had a plan developed in his head based on who came to the door in about an hour's time. If it was Dash and Kwan together, Danny would send Kwan a text from another room thanking him for his help. Then Danny would find a way to lure Dash to his room and you can put together the rest. Danny moved about in the house setting things up quickly, turning up the thermostat, making sure there was enough hot water, finding a place to put his suitcase, making triple sure that he closed all of the curtains, and blinds, and the like. Normally, each of these activities would have been mundane, but this cold night was a special one for Danny.

By eleven thirty, Danny had finished all his necessary preparation and was testing one more theory he had. He figured that since Dash was not blinded by the rings of light that transformed his looks, maybe he could transform from his ghost form to his human form in his abbreviated clothes for Dash. He knew that sort of transformation would add a certain flair to start the evening's festivities. He did not need to do it; Dash would be salivating without it, but the way he was going to present himself, offer himself up to be taken by his boyfriend meant so much to him. So, Danny shed his clothes and got into the garb that he had calculated would make Dash's head turn. He looked at himself in Dash's full length mirror and felt no self-consciousness as he inspected every thing.

"Perfect," he said as he floated in a circle to get the back view. "He's gonna love this."

Danny's clothing was simple. He was wearing no top at all, letting his lean and lithe muscles show. Danny's skin was white like fresh snow, and he was hairless through careful management and through luck. He had made sure that his hair was completely gone except for that on his scalp. Danny's abs were nowhere near what a body builder could make, but they were strong and fit. Danny's arms were also surprisingly defined as a result of all the hand to hand combat he had engaged in, all of the machinery he had to lift, and all the jacking off he did.

Danny wore a white jockstrap underneath his naked upper half. The waistband was green, Dash's favorite color. It clung to his front in a way that he felt made his dick bigger than it actually was. Likewise, it showed his ass to full advantage. Danny was pleased with the results because he had been working very hard in the last few weeks to make sure that it was both soft, but firm. He reached the right balance and then removed any and all traces if hair. If and when Dash was ready to prep Danny's waiting hole with his tongue, Dash would encounter nothing but supple skin. You can be assured too that Danny had gotten rid of his pubes too. Danny's legs were, again, a perfect picture of lean masculinity and sex appeal. He had taken the time to remove all traces of hair from them as well. So, he stood there waiting without blemish to be found anywhere on his body. On Danny's feet, he opted for white socks embellished with a deep green toe area, cuff, and heel. He remained floating as to keep them perfectly clean.

Danny was quite pleased with himself, picking out the right "lingerie" for a sportsman like Dash. He looked over at the clock on the wall of Dash's bedroom. It was five minutes to midnight, five minutes to Dash's birthday, five short minutes to Danny's plan going into action. So Danny tried his theory. He went ghost then he turned back to his fully human form, and much to his relief his ensemble stayed in place, totally clean and feeling wonderful. Danny turned on the lights in Dash's room so that there would be no fumbling in the dark. He flew downstairs and turned down the dimmer to Dash's foyer to a level that made Phantom's eyes glow like green orbs in the dark. Danny transformed into his Phantom form and looked over at the wall.

It was precisely midnight and it was time for Operation "Sierra Echo X-Ray" to start. He floated there in the warmth of the house waiting for his target and about five minutes later, he heard one set of footsteps approaching the front door. Danny's angle prevented him from looking through the window in the door, but all was fine when he heard the man taking out a pair of keys and inserting them into the door. After a couple of quick twists in the tumblers the door swung open dramatically as a cold wind blew into the house. Dash pulled his keys out of the door and walked in wearing a full winter coat. He shut the door behind him quickly and felt an immediate delight in the warmth of his house.

"Shit... fucking cold weather." Dash grumbled to himself as he locked the door behind him. "Danny's the only reason I stay in this shithole town."

Then Dash looked around and knew that something was different. He had not remembered turning up the heat this high, but he ignored it as his eyes caught the familiar green eyes he had looked into for so long. Dash thought he was imagining it at first; maybe he was so cold he was seeing a mirage, but that thought was soon put away as the eyes kept staring at him.

Danny spoke and responded to Dash's last comment with two simple words, "Am I?" In that moment, Danny became visible and tangible in his Phantom form.

"I… I thought you said you couldn't." Dash remarked, thrilled to see that his boyfriend was here. For Dash, just hanging out with him for the weekend, watching movies, playing video games, and simpler talking would have been a birthday present and Christmas present rolled into one.

"Happy birthday, Dash." Danny said. "I have a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" Dash squeaked a bit in excitement, not knowing even slightly what he was in for. "Do I have to close my eyes?"

"No." Danny said sultrily, "In fact, I want you to keep those eyes wide open."

"Okay." Dash said innocently, his eyes fixed firmly on Danny. "You have my undivided attention."

"Good." Danny replied as he transformed himself back to his human form. Dash looked at the rings as they started at his boyfriend's middle and parted ways, one going up the other going down. Within those few seconds, Danny's new form was made manifest before Dash's eyes. And Dash looked upon his boyfriend's near nakedness with admiration and excited trembling. Dash wasn't going to lie to himself. In his mind this was the sexiest thing he could have ever imagined. Danny's skin was always glowing like soft moonlight. Dash started to succumb to the physiological reaction that his gay brain would give him anyway. The blond unzipped his black down coat, and taking it off, he threw it unceremoniously at the couch. He swallowed as his eyes drank in the image before him. Danny almost looked phantasmagoric, but Dash was sure that this whole thing was real as his boyfriend floated towards him.

Danny made his way slowly to Dash and once they finally came close, Danny leaned in and asked Dash a very simple question. _'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"_

"Oui." Dash answered in nervous excitement, as he came eye to eye with his boyfriend, Dash took the initiative and closed the gap between them. This time the kiss started warmly and almost innocent, like their first kiss all over again. But this time was different. Dash felt Danny's hands grasping around, undoing the buttons on his shirt , reaching down for his jeans. Dash did not have as much undressing to do on Danny, so his hands started at Danny's sides, under his armpits. As their kiss deepened and the heat in the room grew, Dash's hands made a natural descent, following studiously Danny's perfect curves and lines. When he got to the waistband of Danny's jocks he reached around the back and held each of Danny's cheeks in a hand. At the same time, Dash pulled Ghosttwink closer to his body, the heat between them growing. Dash was holding Danny's weight has they started to grind into each other.

This kiss grew hotter too. Dash tasted like spice and Danny tasted like mint. Whatever the case, their tongues swirled in a battle for dominance. Danny knew who the top would be, so after a few minutes of playful teasing, he acquiesced and let Dash take the wheel so to speak. Danny focused on getting Dash naked. Danny got down to the final button on Dash's shirt and opened it. Dash removed it and the t-shirt under it. It was then that Danny finally got a complete glistening view of Dash's chest. Danny wanted nothing more than for this man, this specimen of brute masculinity to fuck him into submission.

They broke their kiss off to catch some breath. Danny didn't waste any time in sticking his hand down the waist of Dash's jeans and pulling him behind him.

"Let's go to the bedroom," Danny suggested huskily.

...

The trip to the bedroom was a wonderful blur, half floating and half stumbling. They arrived in a flurry of kisses and touching. They were fondling each other's bodies, grasping and exploring each square inch of their bodies. Dash found out quickly that Danny loved when his nipples were played with. Danny learned about how warm, soft and gentle Dash's hands were. Dash had kicked off his shoes and was laying on his back in the bed. The jeans were off too as Danny made them intangible and removed them without him unbuckling the belt. Someone had turned on the lights for them to see each other in full living color. Danny was on top of him laying on him, frankly. They had resumed their making out as they involuntarily ground their hips into each other. Dash's hands were, again on Danny's ass, squeezing them, pulling them apart. Danny was through with the games, so he started to slide down to Dash's middle. Danny arrived at Dash's crotch without delay and saw the tent that had long formed in Dash's boxers. Danny removed said boxers and Dash's seven and a half inches sprung into Danny's face. Dash could only look down with absolute lust as he watched his boyfriend marvel at the size of his cock. Danny bit his lip as he looked at it. He knew that he had Dash beat in the length department, but in the girth department, Dash was the king. He was almost afraid that Dash would split him in half, but right then, Danny needed that cock in his mouth.

"You have a big fucking dick." Danny moaned as he stared at it. The thing intimidated him slightly. It posed a challenge, but Danny knew that in time this would be pure pleasure.

Danny grabbed Dash's cock, by the base with his left hand and shuddered in pleasure when he felt the warm rod throb at his touch. Danny was glad that Dash looked to have shaved very recently. Danny squeezed gently as he started to stroke Dash slowly, teasingly. Danny was being a bit selfish here because what he really wanted to taste Dash's precum. Once Danny got a good clear bead of it built up on the head of that uncut cock, he dipped down on it and took a lick. Dash was sweet tasting as he shuddered when Danny's tongue touched him.

Danny savored the taste in his mouth, but he knew that he could not stop there. While maintaining lusty eye contact, Danny went down on his boyfriend. He started gently at first, trying to get his mouth used to the girth. None of his practice could have prepared him completely for the real thing, but he remembered to keep his teeth away. He was getting used to the feeling as he started to bob his head up and down. Dash had been trying to restrain himself by keeping his hands at his sides.

"Fuck, you're good at that." Was all Dash could manage as he watched Danny work his way down the length.

Danny continued his duties, finally managing to get his lips to the base and his nose in Dash's trimmed pubes. After a moment down there, Danny came up for air, panting as he spoke.

"Here's that blowjob I owe you." Danny smiled.

He continued, but Dash was too horny for this gentleness. He hands moved from his sides and grabbed Danny's head and neck. A clear slurping sound reverberated off of the walls as Dash started to thrust into Danny's mouth. The smaller boi had not expected this, but he welcomed being used this way. Dash's thrust became more like a constant grind into Danny's mouth. Danny, for his part used his free hands to remove his jockstrap. Danny was hard as a rock as his boyfriend used his warm wet mouth as fleshlight. They looked each other in the eyes, and Danny knew his place.

"You like that don't you?" Dash asked in sincerity

"MMMHMMM." Was all Danny could say right before he came up for air. "I need you inside me."

"What?" A breathlessly Dash asked his boyfriend.

"I want you to make love to me," Danny requested. almost demanding it and moving up on his boyfriend's bed again. They engaged in hot, passionate osculation. This time their bare dicks were rubbing, and they were engaged in a sort of informal frottage. Dash went for his boyfriend's ass with one hand and reached over to his bedside table with the other. There was a waiting jar of Vaseline for him that was normally used for lube when he was alone. Now that Danny was here, there was a bit of a different approach.

He lay his boyfriend on his back on the bed. Danny was face up, and he could tell what Dash had in mind. Dash lifted Danny's legs up and wanted to prepare Danny first. He knew that Danny had some experience with penetration, but nothing he had seen suggested that Danny could just start without a bit of relaxation. Dash brought the vaseline with him and coated his fingers in a generous amount of it. He stuck one finger in with relative ease and watched as Danny squirmed in pleasure under his touch. Dash was on an exploratory mission, looking for Danny's spot. Dash was surprised by the warmth he felt in there. Danny did say that he burnt hotter than a mortal and Dash could feel it right in that moment. Dash stuck in a second finger so that his right index and middle fingers were inside stretching and prepping the boi under him. Dash, with his other hand grabbed his boyfriend's dick and was stroking it to keep him excited. (This simulation was not necessary because Danny kept his erection while he toyed in the back. Taking a real dick, he imagined, would be the same if not better.)

Dash was almost proud of the the long, slightly veiny dick he played with. (He was proud of the fact that he was romantically attached to the cutie who bore it.) Dash couldn't help it, but he did salivate a little at the sight of his boyfriend squirming in ridiculous pleasure beneath him. Dash finally found what he thought was Danny's pspot as he continued to milk the precum out of him. Being a brute in manner and an imp in bed, Dash massaged it gently before giving the pspot a firm and precise tap.

"FUCK!" Danny yelled at the top of his lungs, as he trembled under Dash's fingers. "DO THAT AGAIN!" He commanded it, turning Dash on more than he could put into words. Something about being told what to do by his bottom excited Dash in a way that made his dick twitch.

"What?" Dash asked with fake innocence. "That?" Dash hit the spot again.

"Yes," Danny's voice was not as loud this time, but Dash felt him convulse in an almost painful pleasure. At the same time, Dash was convinced that Danny's hole was sufficiently relaxed, and he was ready to lose his virginity. He lathered his dick in the petroleum jelly. "I need your dick."

Dash removed his fingers making Danny gasp in excitement. Dash bent down and was face to face with his boyfriend. "Are you sure you're ready?"

"Yes." Danny closed the distance between them and started to kiss him deeply. Dash took this as his cue to start his insertion. He pulled Danny's still socked feet over his shoulders and made a path for himself to the prize he'd dreamt of for years. Dash had always been a traditionalist and they would be making love in the missionary position for their first started the insertion slowly. Danny tightened up around him, but he persisted and pushed more in.

Danny continued the kiss through his discomfort. He felt like he was being split in half, but Dash's hands, stills massaging his dick and Dash's lips were relaxing him making the discomfort more bearable. They continued the kiss not needing air and using their telekinetic powers to speak.

 _"Danny, you're so tight,"_ Dash told him as he managed to get his full length in. His balls were pressed against Danny's ass at this point. He remained still to get used to the sensation. Jacking off did not come close to this. He did not know how he survived so long without sex.

 _"You're so big."_ The strain was even audible in Danny's thoughts. Danny had never had something so big and thic(c) inside him, so he was taking his time to adjust.

They remained thus for a moment or two each getting used to this most intimate of feelings with each other, but they both started to relax and when Danny finally moaned into Dash's mouth in ecstasy, the blond started to pick up his pace.

They remained close. Danny wrapped his arms around Dash's back and pulled him in closer so that they touched chest to chest. Dash grabbed Danny's hips and started thrusting into Danny, exacting the right angle to hit Danny's pspot. Danny started to grind his hips in response. They needed no air as their tongues swirled and their sweat mingled. Soon the pace picked up further, and the walls echoed the sound of Dash's balls slamming into Danny's ass.

Danny could not help but moan into Dash's mouth in sync with every thrust. All he smelled was Dash, all he tasted was Dash, all he felt was Dash, and nothing could have made him hornier. Danny moved his hands down towards his dick, but Dash swatted them away.

 _"No, let me."_ Dash told Danny. _"I love you."_

" _I love you t-"_ Danny did not finish his response by the time he felt the Dash's warm hand touching him the way he had yearned to be touched for so long. It was loving, gentle, and sensual. Dash stroked Danny with the same pace as he fucked him. He times his stokes so that he hand would be at the head of Danny's cock at the same I stand his was a deep inside him as he could get. Dash did something wicked and used his right hand to play with Danny's nipples. The poor black haired boy could only quiver as his will to last deserted him. He was getting desperate under Dash's touch. He was getting weak as the grinding of his hips started to come more from need than planned patient pleasure.

 _"So tight, so warm, so…. Fuck this feels good..."_ Dash remarked.

 _"Fuck me… fuck."_ Was as intelligent a remark as Danny could make I. That moment.

Dash made him feel too good for him to last much longer. His cock was twitching and oozing in Dash hand. Dash knew it too, and he was going through his own metamorphosis from rational and reserved to randy and ready to cum. His willpower was slipping, but he resolved not to cum until Danny's did. He was too adding to the carnal cacophony with his own grunts and moans as his body fucked with the speed and precision of a machine.

 _"Ahh. Fuck, I'm about to cum."_ Danny exclaimed soundlessly, his eyes peering desperately, yearningly into Dash's, " _Please… fuck… make me cum."_

" _I'm close too."_ Even Dash's thoughts groaned and wanted the next few moments to be the most blissful he had ever experienced. _"Where do you want it, babe?"_

 _"Inside me. Make me yours."_ Danny answered.

Dash did something positively evil when he started to jerk and fuck Danny at super speed and with all his might. Danny was trying to hold out, wanting his boyfriend to cum first. Danny threw all the caution out and broke off the kiss.

At that same moment, Danny felt the unstoppable surge consuming him. His toes curled, his legs and arms shuddered, his fingers dig into Dash's back, his own back arched, and he took a sharp breath. Right there and right then, for the first time in weeks, Danny came. His dick twitched as Dash continued to stroke it and rope after rope of thick creamy white cum erupt from him and landed on both of their chests. He kept grinding into Dash's dick as he reached the heights of ecstasy. The combination of watching Danny's intense orgasm, Danny's hardcore grinding on his dick, and the way Danny's hole fluttered and tightened around him, Dash let out a telltale moan and started his own journey to climax night. Dash's cum erupted violently into Danny's hole coating his insides. Dash fell onto Danny's slightly as his own ropes of course into the boi started to subside.

He removed himself and lay in the bed next to his boyfriend. They both looked at the ceiling huffing and catching their breath. Dash reached down to Danny's stomach, and gathering some of the warm cum into his finger, he put it up to his nose. Dash let his gayness take over, admitting to himself that he liked the smell. He put the same sample in his mouth and was instantly addicted to the taste. He gathered up some more and asked it.

"Thanks." Danny sighed still trying to bring his heartbeats down. "Thanks for… that. Happy Birthday."

"That was the perfect present." Dash answered, still tasting some more cum. "Your cum is fucking delicious by the way. I'm gonna get some more later today, but first we need to shower."

"No need for that." Danny hugged Dash close to him, "Going ghost!"

Danny went ghost and Dash was cleaned and changed into his default outfit. Danny was in his full ghost regalia. The rings came back a second time as Danny brought them back to the natural state. This time, the change left them both naked, but clean. It had also turned the bed sheets black and the comfortable Phantom gray.

Feeling clean and having no need to go and do anything else, they felt the tiredness that always came after hit sex descend on them. They get into their usual

"Good night." Dash whispered into his boyfriend's ear as he wrapped a protective arm around Danny's frame. "And thank you."

"It was my pleasure." Danny said as he cuddled up to Dash's frame and fit into his embrace. "We're going to have fun this weekend."

"Yes we are." Dash said into Danny's ear.

What they did not know was that the cold and cloudy weather had turned into snow and it showed no signs of stopping. It was steady as it blew around starting to blanket the town. What was more important was that the clouds hid that the stars over Amity Park had changed location dramatically and gotten brighter. They did not know it, but the prophecy was going just to plan, perfectly on schedule.

* * *

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	31. Thirty-one

Dash woke up, still holding his boyfriend in his arms. He was naked in his room and felt his still-slumbering boyfriend breathing softly under him. Last night was a good night, and today, his birthday was going to be better. He could simply feel it in his bones. He realized that the nature of their relationship changed last night. They had set sail into uncharted waters, and they could not turn around, no matter how choppy the waters became. Right now, the water was placid, flat and unchanging like glass, but Dash knew that the peace could not last forever. If the last few months told him anything about what their relationship would be. There were still the problems of Dash coming out to his parents, the continued vague threat from the _lack_ of ghost attacks lately, the continued signs from algorithms and measurements that a major spectral incident (MSI) was imminent, the constant struggle to hide their relationships from peers and teachers who would want to out him. These persisted in the same way as his love for Danny. In a strange way, he, no, they were fighting a perverse cold war with circumstance.

Dash knew that they were on the right side of that war, but he could not feel safe for them while the guns and bombs of those circumstances were pointed at them. Dash and Danny had their own weapons pointed back. The scary part was that he did not know the amount of weapons or how exactly he could and would be able to wield them. He knew that he would come to understand their power and scope, but he prayed with earnest defiance (and in utter futility) that the day of reckoning would not come. And if it was to come, at least let it be something known, not sudden. Their present condition made him relax for the moment. At least for the time being, he could enjoy the fruits of his labor, commitments, and reassurances. He felt satisfied in having to work for something he desired this time. Dash could only marvel at the fact that he had done it and truly earned it. When he reviewed the long arc of the relationship, he realized that they had probably fit a year or two of development into their nine or ten weeks of togetherness.

That said, it must be remembered at all times that their emotions were like fledglings not quite ready for flight. Dash shuddered at the thought of their first fight. Even when he tried to play it straight, Dash was afraid that his temper would make him lash out and say or do something that he would instantly regret. His father was known to throw things around when he got angry. His mother was known to shout at the top of her lungs. He knew that some reactions to anger were inherited and others were taught and learned in the natural cycle. Neither the nature or the nurture portended that he would be able to rightly deal with his anger or stress. He hoped that he would learn how to do it soon or that maybe, with all the supernatural stuff happening around them, he could be given or develop the skill set on his own.

He who was next to Dash began to stir. Danny's eyes fluttered open, but, of course, Dash couldn't see it. Danny yawned and tried to stretch, but he realized that he was still under his boyfriend's arms. Danny soon remembered what the events had been about a few hours before. His mind instantly thought upon his ass. Well it went to the fact that he wasn't sore. Now this was not a slight to Dash's manhood, but Danny felt fine as if nothing had happened. It did not make any sense, considering the discomfort he experienced the night before when Dash first inserted himself. Maybe it was a supernatural thing, but the lack of pain jarred him a little.

"Good morning, boyfriend." Dash whispered. "Looks like we both slept well."

"Yeah." Danny responded, his voice still gruff from sleep, "I hope you liked your birthday present."

"I did." Dash remarked, "I just want to know how you knew exactly what to wear. I mean that was my dream come true."

"I have my ways." Danny said. "I might have figured out what you like to see with some magic tricks. I flew all over the country looking for just the right things to wear tonight. I flew to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago for the jocks I bought. They're designer after all."

"Well you look best when you're totally naked." Dash insisted.

"You do too," Danny answered. "I had seen the muscles before, but oh my God… It's like you're perfectly built."

"Thanks." Dash said, "But it's not fair."

"What's not fair?" Danny asked aloud.

"Well, I want to stay here and cuddle you like this, but I'm starving. That burned a lot of calories last night."

"How about I make you some breakfast?" Danny asked.

"Hmm?"

"Eggs, bacon, French toast, maybe an omelette, some hash browns?" Danny offered

"You don't have to do that." Dash said. "I'm fine with a bowl of cornflakes."

"I know I don't, but I want to. Besides, you know that I'm a good cook, and my man needs to eat something hearty. Cornflakes ain't gonna do it. He man needs some meat and potatoes."

"But-"

" _And_ it's your birthday. You better take this opportunity. Most mornings after I'm going to be too tired to want to do this. I don't want this to sound too lewd, but you really put it down last night. I mean… fuck… you know how to fuck. And I got the feeling you were holding back last night."

"Well that was just the opening salvo." Dash owned up to his holding back. "You said that you wanted lovemaking, so that's what I hope I provided."

"You did." Danny admitted.

"Now, if you say you want to _fuck,_ then we will have some more things to try."

"Ooh! Like what?" Danny asked.

"That's classified." Dash answered. "But do you get a bad head rush when you're held upside down?"

"No." Danny answered, getting a pretty good idea of where the thinking was.

"Are you able to sit on your hands?"

"Of course I am." Danny had no clue what that would matter, but he trusted Dash's judgement.

"Good, but before all of that…" Dash started before he grabbed his stomach, "That omelette sounds pretty good right now. I know that we have all of the ingredients, and again you really don't have to."

"I want to."

* * *

"Oh my God!" Danny pulled the curtain back a bit and took a peer outside after finishing his omelette. It was past eight and for some reason it was pretty dark. "Look at that."

"What?" Dash got up from the kitchen table and walked over to the window. "Oh shit."

It was snowing, and it was snowing hard _. It was snowing as sideways as this sentence._ The cold weather had been predicted and so had some snow, but this was a blizzard. They could not see the neighboring houses with the rate and intensity of the storm. Danny put the back of his hand on the windows and could tell that the temperature was hovering around zero Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius). It was a big one, and he did not know how long he would be in Dash's house. He packed enough clothes, and if push came to shove, he knew that he could wash his clothes down in the laundry room.

"I hope you're not disappointed…" Danny answered looking into the snowstorm.

"Are you kidding me?" Dash asked smiling, "Now we can spend all this time together." He draped his arm around the smaller frame beside him. "Just you and me together, no distractions, no running away, just us."

* * *

"So, you don't mind it?" Dash asked.

"Of course not," Danny looked at him, "Don't be silly. Of course you can play your video games. I want to do some studying anyway."

"Studying?" Dash asked, not sure why Danny would want to spend his time that way. From the way things looked, school might be cancelled on Monday, but he would not interrogate.

"Yes, I want to read the ghost prophecy and understand it." Danny spoke, "I was shitting on this whole thing before, but all of these things are starting to get to me. It's like something is going to happen. I don't know what it is, and I wish that I didn't feel this way, but maybe we can figure it out… I'm not worried about it right now, so really have fun and beat Kwan for me." Danny was serious; he wanted Dash to enjoy his video games. He wanted his boyfriend to enjoy his birthday anyway he saw fit, and if that meant video games, that was fine with Danny.

"Thanks."

So some time passed as Dash sat on the coach and played his games. Danny had been reading for a couple of hours and was becoming afraid of what he was reading. He needed to take his mind off of the doom and gloom predicted in the book. The doom of the book could have remained abstract in his mind if that same intelligence had not been connecting the dots. In other words, though the books words were unwieldy and archaic, Danny knew that the signs were true. He had begun to notice all of the things that the book said coming true. He saw how " _Kynges and kyngedoms shal be silently concerned for the world."_ That would explain the urgent secret letters his father had been receiving. He saw also how " _The strengths of the bearer of the ghost's soul shal be made manifest to he and his time."_ Dash was indeed getting stronger and his mind was getting remained steadfastly unchanged in his demeanor. The same things now gave him satisfaction, pleasure, heartache, anger, and pause as they had three months ago. Dash was not changing but rising in stature.

What really made Danny stop his reading was a passage about Dash. " _And the bearer shalle do three myracles. The first shall be of Tyme, the next shall be of Fire, and the last shall be of water. The ghost shal see these things and will know his tyme has come. There too shall be four witnesses mortal and clothed in flesh. A righteous ladye, crown'd in fire, full of grace and knowledge and her lord who descends whence the sunn rises shall see all things plainly. Another ladye and lord though of good stead, shall fall in favored, be saved and redeemed and see the signs as well. These things shal come to pass neare the end of the olde dayes."_

But what did all of this mean? Who were these lords and ladies to whom these books referred? What would these miracles be? Would they be real, verifiable miracles like walking on water, manipulating and bending fire? Or would they be like little things that only Danny could say were out of the ordinary? The questions swirled in his head. Danny could hardly understand how he could both be free and constrained to fate at the same time. He was free in the there and then. He could move his arms and legs how he liked. He could walk through walls, disappear, and fly at will, but something always held him down. He was confined by that eventual fate. Strangely enough, he was getting a taste of life again. He was free to do what he wanted, but knew in the end he would do… something. That's was the part that was different. The ultimate outcome of life becomes self-evident when a child knows, understands, and appreciates death's permanence. Danny knew that immortality was a permanence of itself. But the prophecies he read seemed to hint at another outcome, a new permanence. He could not know now, and the growing tension inside him would not be a help.

He put a bookmark in the section, and sat back and relaxed on the recliner perpendicular to Dash. The television displaying the video game was on Danny's left, and the couch that Dash was sitting on the edge of the seat, controller in hand, and headset turned on made Danny set aside his growing anxiety. He looked into the distance and saw that he curtains were still closed all over the house. Danny came up with a plan to relieve his stress. " _Hell,"_ Danny figured to himself, " _We're both adults."_

Danny soon focused on Dash's game alternating watching the screen and watching Dash. His plan was perfect, except Dash was talking to Kwan over the multiplayer service. They were playing some game about stealing cars. In the multiplayer mode, it looked as if Dash was doing some sort of heist. It looked as if they were making a getaway in the game, but Danny did not care. He wanted to get some relief from the thoughts, so he put his plan into effect.

Danny got up and took off his shirt and sweatpants. Again, he was nude except for another pair of jocks, this time black and some black socks to match. It was the sexy Phantom themed outfit that Danny supposed was created when he used his transformation to clean them up, Whatever the case, the stark black pressed on the porcelain white made for a wonderful context. Dash had still not looked over from the screen and he was still shit talking Kwan.

"Are you ever gonna learn how to drive in this game?" Dash jeered into his headset, controller in hand, legs manspread like a video gamer would. Danny thought the display was incredibly sexy. Danny got up and bounded gracefully and silently to Dash's side. Dash looked over and saw that his boyfriend was in the mood but he was still mid-game. Dash was about to open his mouth to speak to Danny, but his boyfriend simply replied to him with a single finger over his closed lips tell him to remain quiet.

Dash nodded silently as he watched his boyfriend drop to his knees in front of him. Danny lowered Dash's shorts and started to rub the underwear. He watched as he bulge in Dash's underwear grew, and was satisfied with the contact, at least in that moment. He looked up at his boyfriend who was staring at him.

" _You'd better focus on this game, don't want Kwan to get suspicious."_ Danny narrowcasted to Dash. Then he started to touch Dash only the way he could. " _I'll take care of this."_

" _Fuck,"_ Dash thought back, " _Thanks."_

"Yeah," Dash answered Kwan in his headphones and looked back at the television screen, "I'm here. You want to do another job?"

Danny pulled Dash's underwear down, and the boxer briefs we're around the jock's ankles. Danny was now openly stroking the cock in front of him, taking glances up to see how Dash was constraining himself. The poor jock was trying to convert his moans of pleasure to groans of frustration or victory in the game. Whatever the case, Danny felt the rod stiffening in his hand to its maximum length and girth. He knew that he was ready to get down to business when that first bead of precum formed on the head. Danny simply leaned in and gave it a lick, taking the precum and savoring its taste. It was all his and he knew it. When he licked, he watched as an intense wave of pleasure spread throughout his boyfriend's body. Dash's spine tingled as he felt his boyfriend's lips wrap perfectly around the head. He kept his hands in the controller and continued playing, although, obviously, it was becoming very hard for him to keep his concentration.

Danny heard Kwan's tinny voice through the headphones asking if Dash was okay. Danny only chuckled to himself as he heard and felt Dash trying to compose himself.

"Yeah, yeah," Dash said hurriedly. Just at that moment and with professional quality and quiet, Danny went down and took all of Dash into his mouth. His lips were now pressed upon Dash's shaved pubes. He was drooling a bit from actual like of the fast and from sexual appetite. It was a good thing that it was a leather couch. "I'm fine." Dash managed to say with his teeth gritted. "Let's do this."

Danny was now bobbing his head up and down not making a sound. He looked over and saw how Dash's legs were shaking in pure pleasure. Dash's face was a picture of constrained ecstasy. He was sweating, of course, and his eyes shone like a man in pleasure. But Dash's mouth was firmly shut for fear of letting out a suspicious noise. His breathing through his nose was hitched as he took a few glances down at the twink servicing him. A few times their eyes met, and the intensity of Danny's gaze was enough to make him cum, but he didn't. Danny came off of it a moment for breath, with a string of his saliva and Dash's precum connecting from Danny's lips to the head of that cock.

Danny's warm and silent breath on his dick, brought Dash closer, but he restrained himself. Dash dare not even narrowcast to Danny for fear that, in ecstasy, he would give them away to Kwan. All he could do was tighten his grip on his controller as Danny's breather came to an end.

Getting back to work on the seven and a half inches in front of him, Danny was damn determined to get every last drop out of his boyfriend. Danny did something wild and involved his hands. As he sucke his mouth taking more and more of the uncut piece, his left hand cupped Dash's heavy and full-feeling balls. His right hand reached under and started playing with Dash's hole. He didn't go in, but he rubbed the warm ring. For the first time, Danny understood what someone would love about topping. The heat radiating off of Dash made him want to top, of at the very least try it out once (or twice). That right hand alternated between Dash's hole and pounding is pspot by playing with his perineum (called taint in civilized societies).

Poor Dash was now experiencing something he had never expected. Someone was playing with his ass, and against all doubt, he was hopelessly in love with the feeling. Then came the time, a few moments later when Danny had done the perfect combination with his mouth, his left hand's caress of Dash's nuts and the perfect external pspot pleasure.

"Fuck yeah," Dash shouted in a pointedly aggressive way as he shot an enemy in the game and shot the biggest load of his life in Danny's mouth. Danny was not ready for the volume of cum that filled his mouth, so he was forced to swallow as the jets continued. The swallowing only excited Dash more as he completely emptied into that warm mouth. Danny did not miss a drop as he let the thing go limp in his mouth. The manner in which Dash shouted his orgasm was perfect, as Kwan was none the wiser with the situation and even commented: "Nice shot." Being ever the kind boyfriend, Danny pulled up Dash's underwear and shorts and went back over to sit next to his boyfriend. Danny then sort of lie down on the sofa and used Dash's crotch as a pillow as he faced he television. Danny reveled in the moment. He could smell what he had done and feel its residual heat.

"He's relaxing here." Dash said into his microphone to Kwan. Danny was only concerned about Dash's side of the conversation. "Yeah maybe school'll be canceled on Monday. A four day weekend would be really nice."

There was a lapse as they continued to play and Danny watched. It was fun being this close to Dash as enjoyed himself platonically. It made Danny feel wholesome.

"Sure. You two talk about a lot of boring stuff… but you two are perfect for each other. We'll play later, let me know when you're online." He heard that telltale sound of Kwan leaving the call.

Dash doffed his headset and set down his controller. He looked down in his lap. His boyfriend was now looking straight up at him now. The blond spoke lovingly, satisfied, and a bit sleepy from what had just been done to and for him. "That was amazing. Thanks. I love you." Those words were the best Dash could muster in the moment. They were simple words, but he could scarcely have found a better way to express his true feelings. Danny did make him feel amazing in all the ways he could list and more. He was thankful that Danny existed and answered all the aspects of his existence. And it grew more and more obvious to Dash that his love of Danny was deep and living. The spontaneity of that act was what made Dash really take the time out to appreciate him. Danny's act was selfless, and Dash could not help but wonder if that selflessness was actually an inbuilt part of Danny's nature. Maybe Danny was meant from the beginning to be something more than just another human being coming into life and one day exchanging it for whatever came next. That terrible prophecy that Danny had been occupying himself with not too long ago appeared truer and truer every day. The consequences did not dawn on him. How could they have? The only piece that he could hope to understand was what the present demanded. It demanded vigilance and breathed deep and took a moment to stave away the sleep that wanted to take over his mind.

"I love you too," Danny answered, "And you're welcome. That tasted really good. I thought you needed a bit of a pick me up on your birthday." Danny answered. "It's lunchtime now. Is there something you want? I want everything to be perfect for you today and always."

"No, let's just sit here and talk." Dash said. "I like talking to you, and I want to after well… I saw that you looked a bit concerned reading that prophecy thing. So you want to talk about it."

"No." Danny said with little conviction.

"You know you can't lie to me."

"Well, yes, I just didn't want to bring you down, especially not today of all days." Danny sat up and leaned on Dash, propping his head on a friendly shoulder.

"I'll have many more birthdays," Dash wrapped a comforting arm around Danny's frame, and, of course, Danny fit perfectly into the space and snuggled in closer. "Come on, tell me about it."

"Well it says that the possessor of my ghostly soul will do miracles and there will be witnesses around when it happens. And we already know that you're the 'possessor', but miracles… What does that mean? I was wondering what that could possibly mean. Like… look, when this thing was written, you driving a car would be a miracle. An airplane, television, nuclear weapons would all be miracles in the eyes of a prophet back then."

"Well, did it say anything about these miracles?" Dash asked, looking at the ceiling. "Or did it just say miracles?"

"It said something about a miracle of time, a miracle of fire, and a miracle of water." Danny shrugged, "God only knows what that means."

"Well maybe me pulling you through time when you helped Sam and Tucker out counts. I mean… as strong as you are-"

"I couldn't have flown a month in time all by myself. You saw how exhausted I was. I passed out and you had to tuck me in. But somehow, you had enough strength to pull me through and the rest of your day was normal."

"Yeah, left you a note, drove home, jacked off, went to bed. Nothing, well, except for breaking the rules of space and time, was different about that day. I would call that special. And you know what pissed me off the most about that whole thing?" Dash remembered it clearly.

"What?" Danny asked.

"Tucker and Sam just stood there and watched me as I was using all my strength to pull you…" He slowed and stopped once he came to a realization. "They just stood and watched… That's the definition of a witness, isn't it?"

"Last time I checked." Danny answered.

"But fire and water?" Dash answered, "What could that mean?"

"I think its literal." Danny answered. "Maybe you'll breathe fire or be walking on water soon."

"I doubt it…" Dash laughed. "Was there something else that the book said that messed with you?"

"It talked about four witnesses. Tucker and Sam are the obvious ones, but that leaves two people to be determined."

"Did it say anything about them?"

"A man and a woman. She wears 'a crown of fire' and full of grace and knowledge. and he comes from where the sun rises."

Without missing a beat Dash pieced it together, "Jazz and Kwan."

"Huh?"

"'A crown of fire' is red hair. And it says that the girl has it. And the man comes from where the sun rises… The sun rises in the east. Kwan's Asian and therefore from the east, and he does literally live to the east of me. I mean if it's written that way, that's the only thing I can see."

"It makes sense." Danny admitted.

"See." Dash responded, grinning, "I'm clear-headed after I cum down your throat. Where'd you learn how to do that?" Dash asked.

"It's a technique."

"Why don't you teach me how to do it?" Dash answered with a question. Danny almost laughed but stopped himself when he realized the request was earnest.

"Wait, what… you mean… you want to suck _me_?" Danny asked, severely taken aback by the notion.

"I mean, come on… I can't have a dick that big and not get something out of it." Dash answered. "I'm still gay, so I want to suck some Danny dick… maybe get pounded a little bit. Looks like you enjoyed that last night."

"More than I could put into words, Dashie."

"So, I have to try it at least once…"


End file.
